The N Wars: Reclaim the Dimensions
by First Black Phantom
Summary: -N WARS 2- Mario, Luigi, and Peach goes missing. They head out once more on the 64 to find Peach and Luigi, freeing dimensions from the Zox along the way, but someone among them is not who they seem. *ENDING HAS BEEN CHNAGED*
1. Chapter 1: Mario is Missing

Chapter 1

Mario is Missing

Mario sat the paintbrush down and stepped back. It had been seven months since the Zox attacked, and they had finally rebuilt Peach's castle.

"Oh, it's lovely! Thank you Mario, and you too, Luigi, for helping my Toads rebuild the castle."

"No problem!" Luigi said.

"We're happy to help. Well, how about that pasta? I'm starved!" As they started walking back toward the castle, the sky suddenly turned dark.

"No." Mario said to himself. He looked around for a portal, but didn't see any. Suddenly, the ground they stood on began to crack and sink. One of the trees sank down and disappeared, and he could see that the portal had opened below them. They started running away, but the ground sank, and they fell in.

Mario didn't see anything he could do, so he pulled out the radio Zero gave him. Everyone had kept the radios as a memento of their adventures together.

It was early morning in Hyrule, and the sun was just rising. As Link walked down the steps from Kakariko, he heard Mario's voice coming from his radio.

"Help...Zox...!" Mario's voice was gargled with static, and he was only able to hear two words.

"Mario, what's going? Mario? Come in Mario! Mario? Mario? Mario! Answer me! Mario!" There was no reply but static.

As Sonic started to come to, his vision was blurry. He focused his eyes, and could see that he was in a small, metal room, strapped down to a chair, and a bright light above him made him squint his eyes. The only entrance to the room was a door to his right. Sonic tried to get out, but the bands held him down. Sonic tried to remember what he was doing before he ended up here, but then the door slid open, and a huge Zox stepped in.

"So, you're the one known as Sonic? You certainly are a fast one. It took a lot of effort to capture you."

"Who are you? And where am I?" Sonic asked. A smirk then came over the Zox's face.

"Heh, very well then. I am War Master Karlnak, and you are on the mother ship."

"War Master? So you're the one who's been blasting my home to bits!" Sonic yelled out in anger. He struggled to get out and smack him in the face, but it was futile.

"Yes, and once I rid this planet of the ones who stand in my way, we can claim this planet our own. Now tell me, Sonic, where are the Freedom Fighters?"

"Like I'd ever tell you!" Karlnak then came right up to Sonic's face and looked him straight in the eye.

"Tell me, and I just might let you live!"

"Never!" Just then, a siren went off outside the room. Karlnak stepped back and took out a communicator.

"What's going on?" Karlnak asked in his angry tone.

"A flying craft is attacking, sir!" As if on queue, the wall was blasted open from gun fire, and a blue plane flew inside. Karlnak was knocked down from the blast and laid on the floor.

"Sonic!"

"Tails! Get me outta here!" Tails quickly jumped down from the plane with a tool in hand. He came up to Sonic and used a laser cutter to cut him out. Karlnak got back up as Sonic and Tails hoped back in the plane.

"You wretched little…!" Before he could finish, Tails turned the plane around and flew back out. As the Tornado flew out of the Zox mother ship, lasers were being fired at them, but they quickly escaped.

Sonic, everything is ready to go!" Tails said.

"Fine, let's hurry then." Sonic didn't like the idea of leaving the planet, but they had already tried to stop the Zox. If they didn't escape, they would probably all be dead. They had been fighting against for quite some time now, but their situation had grown quite grim.

After a few minutes, they had reached Angel Island. The island was sitting in the ocean next to a sea cliff so that the people who would come with them could walk on. Tails landed the Tornado on the island next to the ruins that held the Master and Chaos emeralds. All the Chaos emeralds had been gathered and put in place with the Master emerald, and a machine had been built in place.

Tails called it a dimensional drive. It was built around the Master emerald in the center of the ruins, and fed off of the power combined with the Chaos emeralds. Four rods in the center stretched out towards the sky, which would open a portal.

Sonic walked up to the machine where Dr. Robotnick was kneeling down, tweaking the Dimensional Drive.

"I hope you keep your promise, Eggman." Sonic warned.

"I promise, I won't cause any trouble to you or your friends. As much as it pains me to be working with you, it's either that or die at the hands of the Zox." Robotnick said as he screwed down a bolt. He then put his tool down and stood up. "There, it's finished." He then pressed a button, and the emeralds began to glow. Electricity began flowing into the machine as it built up power.

"All right, it's working! Thanks Eggman, I couldn't have finished it without your help!" Tails said excitedly.

"Whatever." Eggman said coldly. The thought of helping his enemies was too much.

"Knuckles, take us up!" Tails shouted. Knuckles was sitting in a meditative position on top of the Master emerald. Knuckles focused his mind to instruct the emerald to take the island up.

"Hey wait, where's Sally?" Sonic looked around, but didn't see her anywhere.

"What? I thought she was coming?"

"Oh no, Sally!" Sonic was beginning to panic, and began running all over the island to search it from head to toe. After a few seconds, though, he found that she was no where on it. He then rushed towards the edge of the island.

"Why, Sally? Why wouldn't you listen to me?" Sonic thought to himself. "I know we argued whether leaving was good or not, but surely you can't think that we have a chance by staying?" Sonic came to the edge of Angel Island, but stopped suddenly. The island was already a few miles above ground.

"Sally!" Sonic shouted to the ground. She was nowhere to be seen. Sonic was about to jump off, but a hand grabbed his shoulder. He looked around to see Tails.

"Don't Sonic, it's too late!"

"But we can't leave her behind!" Bolts of energy came out from the center of the island and up into the sky. The bolts met at a single point, and as they pulled apart, it tore open a hole in the dimensions. A swirling black vortex grew, and would continue growing until it was big enough to engulf the entire island. They were now in the upper layer of the atmosphere, and oxygen was getting low as they were getting closer to outer space.

Sonic looked down back at the planet, and to his horror, several CDs had gathered around the planet, and began charging their laser cannons all at once. As they fired, large explosions erupted all around Mobius.

"No!" Sonic reached out his hand towards the planet, but there was nothing he could do. Amy then ran up to Sonic holding him, crying. She then looked up to him with tears in her eyes, and spoke in a voice not of her own.

"Help...Zox...!"

Sonic woke up with a shock from his dream, and fell right off the roof of Tails's workshop. Sonic stood up from the ground, rubbing his aching head.

"I gotta stop sleeping on high places." Sonic said aloud. He then looked up at the roof, pondering in his mind.

"I don't understand; we defeated Karlnak seven months ago, I've avenged Mobius, and yet I still have this dream. Wait, it was different this time. Why did Amy say _Help…Zox…!_, and why did she sound like Mario speaking through a static filled radio?" His train of thought was broken as he then heard Link's voice.

"Mario, what's going? Mario? Come in Mario! Mario? Mario? Mario! Answer me! Mario!" Sonic looked inside the window of the workshop, and saw that it was coming from his radio inside. He quickly went in and grabbed it.

"Link, is that you? What's going on?"

"Sonic! You didn't hear? Mario said something about the Zox, and now he's gone!" Link shouted back through the radio.

With Mario's last plead for help, everyone began gathering at the Mushroom Kingdom to see what happened; however, they didn't know that someone else was coming.

"Wow, is that Nintendo? It's huge!" Marina said. She was looking at the planet Nintendo through the window of their rocket home.

"Yep. It's one of the largest planets in known existence." Marina's creator said. "With its large size and wide diversity of terrain, many different organisms have evolved from it. Koopas, Humans, Hylians, just to name a few."

"I've always heard about it, but I've never seen it with my own eyes. I bet Mario and the others will be surprised to see us."

"If they remember us."

"Sure they will! We saved their lives after all!"

With the aid of Zelda, Link was instantly transported to Peach's castle. The sun was shining on a clear day, but that didn't make things seem any better. As he turned around, he saw a huge hole in the ground. It looked as if the ground had just sunk down, but the floor of the hole was perfectly flat.

"Is this what happened to you, Mario?" Link thought aloud, worried for Mario's safety. Several Toads were at the site securing the area, and one of them heard Link.

"I'm afraid so. One minute our princess is outside with the Mario brothers, the next they fall into a dimensional portal. Oh, what has happened to them?" Toad was very worried.

"A dimensional portal?" Link gasped. "That means the Zox must have taken him somewhere! But where? And why?" Link looked around as if trying to find some sort of clue, but then he heard something head towards them with great speed. Across the grassy field, he saw a blue blur heading straight towards him. It then tried slowing down by digging its feet in the ground. Sonic kicked up dirt and scarred the ground as he skidded to a stop.

"I came as fast as I could, so what happened?" Link looked at Sonic, but then turned his attention to the hole. Sonic looked, and beheld the gaping hole.

On the outskirts of Viridian city, a large wherehouse was constructed. What was inside was kept generally a secret, yet there were many people who went in and out of it. There were only two entrances, one being a large gate, so large that it made a commercial jet look small. The other was a small door next to the gate for people to enter, which was always protected by two security guards.

Ash was running towards the wherehouse as fast as he could. He ran up to the door, but the security man quickly stopped him.

"Woah kid, slow down. What do you think you're doing here, huh? This place is off limits."

"What? It's me, Ash! Come on, let me in!"

"No one without identification may enter."

"Identification? But you know me!"

"Sorry kid." Frustrated, Ash fumbled through his pockets and pulled out a I.D. card. The man then smiled and said,

"Ah yes, Ash Ketchum. You're good to go." The two then opened the door and stepped aside.

"Do you guys keep having to do this to me?"

"Come on Ash, you know it's the rules. No one can enter without I.D."

"Fine." Ash stepped inside and entered a small room with another door ahead and another security guard behind a window to his left. As they closed the door behind him and Ash showed the man his card, the door in front opened up. There was a lot of security placed on this building, but it was reasonable considering it held Nintendo's protector.

Entering the main area of the building, he saw the Nintendo 64. It was being held inside this wherehouse so it could be tested on. When they first found the 64, it was a mystery to them. It was created by an unknown species long ago, and with such foreign technology, no one knew how it worked.

After the war, different specialists from across the planet and even others from across the galaxy came to study the ship. Taking small pieces of the ship apart here and there and looking into the systems, they began to understand more on how it worked, and even more, learn how to adapt some of the technology to their own.

"Professor Oak? Oak!" Ash yelled, trying to raise his voice above the noise of the machinery.

"Ash? What are you doing here?"

"Didn't you here? Mario's been kidnapped by the Zox!" Oak's face then looked quite sadden.

"Oh yes, that. I did hear about it, and that's why we're working hard right now to put the 64 back together. If the Zox have returned then we're going to need to use it again."

"Professor, I came to tell you that I'm going to go to the Mushroom Kingdom. I want to help get Mario back!"

"Are you sure? Even if you have to leave the planet? You know that the Pokeball transfer only works if you're on Nintendo."

"I don't care! Mario's my friend and I'll do anything!" Professor Oak then smiled.

"I knew you would say that. Here Ash, take this." Oak took a Pokeball out of his pocket and handed it to him. "Just in case something happens and you need to use more Pokemon, you can use that."

"But you said it only works if I'm on Nintendo."

"Not anymore. We've gained a much better understanding of how the dimensional drive works, and I've installed one to the Pokeball transfer unit. With a boosted signal on the Pokeball, you can now use any of your Pokemon with it anywhere, whether you're on a distant planet or another dimension."

"Thanks professor!"

"Oh, come with me. I can use the transfer unit to get you to Mushroom kingdom in a snap."

Link, Sonic, and Zero discussed with each other with what to do. If they were to rescue Mario, they would have to find him, but he could be in any space, in any dimension.

"Can we be positive it was the Zox?" Zero asked.

"Who else would want to get Mario that has a dimensional drive?" Suddenly, the sky darkened, and a small portal facing them opened up, and Ash walked out.

"Ash?" Link was shocked that Ash just walked out of a portal.

"Wow, that was cool! Oh hey, did you guys know that they figured out how the dimensional drive on the 64 works?"

"Oh, so that's how you got here?" Sonic asked.

"Yep."

"Well, people seem to just keep popping up here." Zero said as he looked towards the sky. The others looked at what he was looking at, and saw a house on rockets coming down from the sky. It came down and landed right in front of castle. The door on the house opened and a green-haired woman stepped out.

"Wow, so that's Mushroom Kingdom's castle!" Marina said. Professor Theo then stumbled out of the door and fell flat on his face. "Huh? You okay professor?" Marina then helped him stand. As he stood, he appeared to put much effort into just standing.

"Man, you're lucky you kept all your strength when you turned human; Nintendo's gravity is strong!"

"Oh yeah, that's right. This is a larger planet, so the gravity is also much stronger. I hardly noticed it though." Marina then looked ahead and saw Link, Sonic, and Ash.

"Hey, guys! Surprised to see me?" Marina went over to see them, letting go of the professor, who then fell flat into the ground again.

"What? Hey, aren't you that girl who helped us in space? Marina?" Link searched his memory for who this person was. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, I thought I'd come see what this place is like!" Professor Theo then mumbled something in the ground.

"Heavy."

"Well, I'm afraid you've come at a bad time; Mario's been kidnapped."

"What? Kidnapped? By who?" Marina was shocked that something like this could happen.

"We believe it was the Zox."

"I thought you destroyed them?"

"So did we."

"We defeated the War Master, but there are still Zox out there." Sonic added.

"So what are you going to do?"

"We're not sure." Link then looked to the sky. "Where are you Mario?"

Things were dark and blurry, but as Mario's vision came into focus, he saw that he was in a small cell with Peach and Luigi. The cell was made of metal, and an energy barrier seemed to be what held them in. Beyond the transparent, fuzzy blue barrier was a Zox soldier standing guard. There were other cells, one on his right and another to the left, but there was no one in them. There was a door that led to the room, but that was closed.

"Mario, are you okay?"

"Eh, Peach? What happened?"

"When we came out of the portal, we fell right in here, and you fell on your head. You've been out for about five minutes."

"So that's why my head is pounding. What did I miss?"

"Nothing. That guard doesn't say a thing." Luigi said. Mario slowly sat up, and then the door to the room opened. Out from the dark hallway, a Zox causally walked in, and the door quickly closed behind. Unlike the other Zox, he was not as muscular. He was just as tall, but his body mass and muscle size were about half as the soldiers. He walked up to barrier of the cell, and looked right at Mario.

"So, you're the one who defeated the mighty Karlnak? Heh heh, I should thank you. If it were not for you, I would not have been promoted to War Master." Mario stood up and looked at the Zox. He was smiling, something quite different from Karlnak. His face seemed much more gentle, but Mario could sense that he was still just as evil.

"How did you know it was me who defeated Karlnak?"

"Heh, that fool Karlank recorded the whole battle. When the mother ship came spewing out of the dimensional portal in pieces, we managed to salvage the recording. Karlnak was considered the greatest warrior among the Zox, but now he rests in shame for such a humiliating defeat." Mario was a little surprised that this Zox cared so little for Karlnak.

"You seem surprised. Do I strike you as odd?"

"You could say that." Mario said, unsure of what to think of him.

"It's understandable. You've only seen the military side of the Zox. Not all of us are brutal monsters anxious to take out another race."

"But Sonic told me that…."

"That we are an evil race that only seeks power? That's what many think of us. You see, we have a society just like others. We have families. We have children that go to school, and others who have decent jobs. You see, the thing is, our race reproduces at a much quicker pace than others, and so it becomes necessary for us to find new homes. When necessary, we sometimes need to, 'evict', the current race inhabiting the land for us to live there."

"You need more land so you conquer other planets for yourself? Doesn't sound too much different."

"Well, when you say it like that."

"So does your whole race agree on this method then?"

"Oh, well, sure, there are _some_ who disagree, but they don't have much choice in the matter." The War Master seemed to take it so lightly that it seemed like it was more of an issue than he made it sound.

"So then War Master, why…?" Peach asked.

"Please, call me Sandfire."

"Sandfire?" The name seemed odd to her, and questioned it aloud.

"Yes, in the cool nights of the desert on my home planet, the sand rapidly cools, creating a haze that looks like fire."

"So then, why have you captured us instead of killing us?"

"Oh, don't worry, I'm not going to kill you. Not yet, anyways. Unlike Karlnak, I believe that there is much more to winning battles than sheer force. There are much more, cunning ways." Mario was getting a better image of Sandfire. He may appear gentle, but there was a slyness to his words.

"Cunning ways?" Luigi asked.

"Yes. Your dimension has created quite an uproar among the Zox. No one has actually destroyed the mother ship before. Now that I am the War Master, I can redeem the honor of the empire. With my tactics, I will defeat the enemy that has opposed our power. Karlnak made it obvious that this Nintendo 64 is too powerful to fight head on, so instead, it needs to be defeated from the inside-out." Sandfire then snapped his fingers, and the door slid open.

A short, frail-looking man walked in. He was only a few inches taller than Mario, and he appeared to have malnutrition. His skin was a gray color, and his hair was rather thin. Most curious was that his arms were quite long, going all the way down to his knees. The whole time, he looked at the floor and rubbed his right forearm.

Sandfire pressed a button on Mario's cell, and the barrier disappeared. The man then walked in, still looking at the floor. The barrier then went back up, keeping him inside with Mario and the others.

"You know what to do." Sandfire said. The man came up to Mario, unable to look him in the eye. Mario eyed him cautiously, unsure of what he was going to do.

"I'm terribly sorry about this, but surely you must understand." The short man seemed to keep rubbing his arm. "The Zox have promised that if I do this, they'll free my planet." He then looked at Mario, and he could see in his eyes that this man was quite troubled. Just then, his arms swung at Mario. Mario was about to back off, but he had already grabbed Mario by the head. He wasn't applying much pressure, but for some reason Mario couldn't move, and everything was going dark.

"Link, are you there?" Link reached into his pocket and took out the radio.

"I'm here Slippy, what is it?"

"We've got the 64 all ready to go. We're on our way there."

"Good, see you then."

"Are you sure heading off to find Mario is a good idea?" Samus questioned. "The chances of us actually finding him are slim you know."

"I know, but just sitting here won't bring any results." Everyone but the Starfox team was now gathered at Peach's castle, and once they came, the warriors of dimension N would once again be together.

"All right, as soon as they get here, we'll need to…." As Link was planning their next move, they sky darkened.

"This again? What's happening now?" D.K. said. They looked all around, prepared for whatever might come. A portal then appeared right over the hole, and to everyone's surprise, Mario fell right out of it. The portal closed, and Mario laid face flat in the dirt. Everyone raced to Mario's side and lifted him, excited to see him back.

"Mario! Are you okay?"

"What happened?"

"Where were you?" Everyone was asking questions all at once, and Mario seemed to be quite confused.

"What? What are you all doing here? What are you talking about?" Mario seemed to be dazed.

"What do you mean? You got sucked into a portal and told us the Zox were back!"

"Zox? What's a Zox?" Everyone was stunned. Mario didn't remember the Zox.

"Mario, what's the last thing you remember?"

"I was sitting out here having a picnic with Peach. Say, where is she? And where did this hole come from?" Everyone's jaw dropped. It looked like the Zox had captured Mario to steal his memory. They had taken everything up to the point just before the whole war started. For some reason though, they still had Peach and Luigi.

Mario looked like he had been through a lot, so they took him out of the hole and let him sit. Since Mario was clueless, they filled him in on what had happened, and it seemed hard for him to take all of it in, but he seemed to get a hold of everything after a while.

The Starfox team later arrived with the 64, and they had to re-introduce him to it. While Sonic showed him around though, the others talked among themselves.

"It just doesn't make any sense." Link said, trying to figure things out. "Why would they kidnap him only to take his memory and send him back? There's got to be more to this."

"What if there's something on him? Like some sort of tracker, or a disease, or something. They send him back knowing we'd take him, only for something to end up getting us all." Zero said. Samus agreed to the idea.

"That's a possibility. I have a detailed scanner on my ship. We can check him out for any abnormalities." After they took Mario to Samus's ship to scan him, however, they came to a dead end.

"Nothing. There's absolutely nothing different with him." Samus said in defeat.

"What if he's a shape shifter or something?" Link asked in a whisper, since Mario was right next to them in the scanning chamber.

"No, he's not. If he was, his DNA would be unstable." Mario then stepped out, annoyed.

"Are you done with these tests? Come on, Peach and Luigi are still out there! We have to go rescue them!"

"I understand, Mario, but we have no idea where to look." Zero said. With Mario's determination to go look for them, Sonic started to feel inspired again about his previous idea.

"Hey, why not? Don't you think it's a good time to go with my plan now?" Sonic said, hoping for a positive answer.

"You mean the plan of rescuing dimensions from the Zox? That's quite an undertaking you know." Zero said.

"Come on! I thought that we were heroes? Isn't it our job to help those in need?"

"Yeah! I'm for it!" Ash said enthusiastically.

"Pika pi pi chu!" Pikachu seemed to share Ash's excitement, but Zero continued to question the move.

"It could be a long journey. Who knows how many dimensions the Zox have control over?"

"You know, if we rescue people from the Zox, I'm sure we could find even more people who could help." Link was now beginning to think it was a good idea.

"We'll be fighting against even more Zox, not just the ones that came to invade our dimension."

"True, but we'd be fighting them one dimension after another." Samus pointed out. "All right, let's see here. Who's in favor then of heading out?" Everyone then raised their hands but Zero. After a few seconds of thought, Zero submitted to the will of the people and raised his hand.

"Hey, how about I come too?" Marina asked.

"What? You're not serious, are you?"

"Oh, come on professor, you heard what they said, there's people in need! It's not like we have any other plans." Theo then grumbled.

"Eh, fine then."

"Well, I suppose you could help, but what can you do?" Link asked.

"I may be human now, but I still have the strength of a cybot!

"'Course then there's the armor." Theo added.

"Armor?"

"Yes, I recently finished making it for you. It's an armor that will give you the same abilities as before. I made it incase there was some reason you would need to fight again."

"Oh, thanks professor!" Mario was then getting anxious.

"What are we waiting for then? Let's go!"

Everyone then gathered into the ship. Professor Theo decided to come along on the 64 and leave their house at the castle, while Samus and Starfox, except for Slippy who went on the 64, followed in their own ships. While everyone took their seats, Link realized that Mario was the pilot, and his memory of doing so was gone.

"Um, Mario? You sit over there." Link said, pointing to the seat in front with the steering controls.

"What? You want me to fly this thing?"

"Well, yes. You were the one who was doing it, and you did a good job at it." Fox, who was listening through the communication link, talked to them from the main screen.

"You're the man for the job. I mean, it's a lot different from the Arwing, and I had trouble just getting it here."

"Well, I guess I'll try." Mario was reluctant, but he sat down, and placed his hands on the controls. He began fidgeting with the controls, and something started to come to him.

"Wait a minute…I know this."

"Are you remembering something, Mario?"

"Yeah, I press this button here and…" As Mario pressed the button, a faint hum was heard, and the ship began to hover over the ground. Mario grabbed the controls, and ship steadily lifted up.

"Hey, I'm doing it!" Mario was excited that he was able to pilot it, but his confidence was getting too high. As they floated upwards, the ship began to drift to the right.

"Mario, look out, the castle!" Mario quickly tried to compensate, but the ship drifted right into the castle, and took a chunk off of the top spire.

"Oh, man, Peach is gonna kill me."

"Just…take it slow." Getting the hang of it, they eventually made it to outer space. Once they were out of Nintendo's gravitational pull, he stopped the ship, and looked at Ash.

Ash was in control of the dimensional drive, and as he brought up the screen for the alternate dimensions, he gasped at the amount. There on his screen were countless circles laid out. Some had letters on them, others had numbers, while some didn't have any writing on them at all.

"Man, where do we start?"

"I guess we might as well start at the beginning." Zero said.

"Okay, I guess we'll go with dimension A then."

"No!" Mario shouted. Everyone then looked at him, surprised at his outburst. Mario then appeared to be embarrassed.

"I mean, go to S."

"Huh? Why?"

"Uh…it's just a hunch."

"Well, okay then." Ash clicked on dimension S, and a map of the dimension was displayed. Clicking on a point in space near a planet, a hole in the dimensions opened up.

"So then, it's begun." Sonic said, somewhat nervous at what they might find.

"Yep. Let's do this." D.K. said, equally nervous. Mario took them in, smiling. All was going according to plan.

Inside the cell, Mario came to.

"Oh man, what happened this time." Mario asked.

"It's weird. When that guy grabbed your head, his body started changing. He became you!" Luigi said.

"Me?"

"Yeah, he looked just like you." Peach said. "After that, Sandfire took him back. Sandfire said earlier about defeating us from the inside-out. I'm afraid of what they might do with that copy."

"Do you think that they captured us to switch me with him? But the others wouldn't fall for a trick like that, would they?"

* * *

A/N: If you don't recognize them, Marina and Theo are from the 64 game Mischief Makers. 


	2. Chapter 2: Deceit Part 1

****

Chapter 2

Deceit

As they traveled through the tunnel of the portal, Sonic turned around and asked Slippy a question.

"So, you guys figured out the 64?"

"Oh, yes, we did. That's why I came with you here, so I can explain the things. Well, as you saw with Ash, we've been able to adapt the dimensional drive technology to our own. Also, we've found all of the moves for the weapon system."

"Really? That's great! How many are there?"

"Thirty-six different techniques." Zero said. "Each one has been already download into my memory."

"We also figured out how the repair bots work, and updated them to also fix Samus's ship, the Arwings, and even Zero. There was one curious thing though."

"What's that?"

"We found that there's something missing in the power system."

"Missing? How?"

"Well, we can't really say for sure it's missing or not. It's just that there's a slot for something to go in it. It's a cube shaped hole, not much bigger than my head. We have no idea what's supposed to go there." There was more to mention of what they found with the 64, but they were reaching the end of the tunnel. As the walls of the tunnel glowed a bright white, almost to the point of having to close their eyes, they were back in outer space, and in front of them was a planet with a large ocean and plenty of plants on the land. There were, however, a few large craters. As they looked at it on the screen, Sonic was in awe. He almost looked like he was about to cry.

"It's…it's Mobius! I never thought I would see it again!"

"Mobius? You mean the planet you came from?"

"Yeah! We escaped it when the Zox attacked." Sonic then looked very determined. "All right! The first planet we take back from the Zox is right there!" Sonic said, pointing to Mobius in front of them.

Inside the Zox-occupied central command center for Mobius, a certain soldier had the job of monitoring the space around the planet. It was a rather boring job, as know one but transport ships ever came near, but to his surprise, a large, peculiar-shaped ship appeared on radar.

"What the?" As he moved over to the controls for the monitoring satellite, he used the camera to look at what it was. Once he recognized it as the Nintendo 64, he immediately hit the emergency button, and the warning siren went off.

"What's going on?"

"Commander, I've spotted the Nintendo 64 in our territory!"

"What?" The commander took a look, and saw for himself the enemy approaching them. He then took out a communicator.

"Space troops five through fifteen, head to sector three immediately! The Nintendo 64 has been spotted! Confront and attack!" The commander then smiled. "Heh heh heh, If I can stop what Karlnak didn't, then I'll surely be promoted."

"We've got forty-two CDs approaching our coordinates." Sonic said, looking at the sensors.

"Wow, forty-two? They must really want us dead this time." D.K. said.

"Heh, no problem." Zero was confident, considering he knew all of the ship's attacks now. Fox and Samus then appeared on the main screen.

"Do you need help with this?"

"No, we can handle this. Mario needs the practice anyways." Link then pressed the buttons to transform the ship into robot mode.

"CDs? Those are the Zox ships?" Mario asked.

"Yes, they are. Looks like you're gonna be put to the test now."

"What? You want me to fight an army? I just started figuring out how to steer this thing!" The CDs were now in visible range, and they could see the swarm of ships coming right for them.

"I'm not so sure of this." Mario said, nervous of messing up.

"Don't worry, you can do it!" Zero began his attack, and fired a split missile into the group of ships. The missile collided with a CD and destroyed it with a single explosion. The missile then split apart into five more, and collided with the others, and repeated.

"Heh, those fools fly too close with each other." The whole area lit up with fiery explosions, and once they died down, they could see that there were eleven ships left.

"All right, I reduced the numbers, Mario, now go in there." Mario gulped, and then headed towards the enemy. As they flew towards them, the palms of the 64 formed energy balls, and as it gripped them, they formed two blades of energy.

Picking up speed, the 64 flew straight for one of the CDs. Placing the blades in a cross, it sliced the CD in half as it went right through it. They then stopped and faced the others, taunting them to come. The ships fired their lasers all at once, sending a rain of lasers at the 64. Ignoring the lasers, they rushed forward, slicing two more ships in half. Four were headed straight for them in formation. Bringing the blades down at the two top CDs and swinging their feet at the two bottom ones, they took them down with ease.

The remaining ships rushed towards them, firing their lasers. The 64's armor was strong, and with the aid of the repair bots, the damage seemed quite minor. They then threw their blades into two of the ships. Without the 64 holding the shape of the energy, the blades became free-flowing energy, and exploded on contact. The explosion was immense, and finished them off.

As the explosion died down, Mario sat there amazed. In just a matter of seconds, they had defeated forty-two CDs, a feat he never thought possible.

"Wow, this ships is…really powerful."

"Of 'course, what did you expect?"

"Well…."

"There's more coming! Darn, we can fight them, but they just keep sending more." Sonic said.

"Link, press that button." Slippy said.

"This one?"

"Yeah." Link pressed the button on his console that Slippy pointed to, and they heard the hum of the engine get a little louder. Just then, the map of the ship on Link's screen became transparent, and the CDs that were heading towards them slowed down, and then headed for Samus and Starfox.

"What happened?"

"Stealth mode. This ship is now invisible to everyone." Slippy explained.

"Really? Wow, we were so busy fighting the Zox before, that I never actually tried all the buttons."

"Cool, now that we're invisible, we can just fight them without them seeing us!" Ash said.

"Not quite. Stealth mode takes up a lot of power, so we can't use our weapons, and our speed is reduced by three quarters."

"Well, at least now we can land undetected."

"Hey, guys, what happened? Where are you?" Samus asked through the communication link.

"We're fine, we're just invisible right now."

"Great, so you leave us to fight the Zox?" Samus asked in an annoyed tone. It then hit them that since they're invisible, the Zox would attack them.

"Samus, bring your ship inside the bay. You should see it when I open it. Starfox, how about you bring your Arwings inside too?"

"All right, good idea. We'll have ROB keep the Great Fox in an orbit outside of what their sensor range should be." Once Link switched the 64 to ship mode, he opened the bay door. As it opened, tt was like seeing a door open in the middle of space. The Zox were now on Samus, and she had to get away from them. Two were coming straight for her, and while avoiding the lasers, she flew right past them. They then turned around to go back after her, and she soon found herself being fired on from the back. She was repeatedly being hit, and her shielding was quickly going down, but then the CDs suddenly exploded, and the Starfox team flew ahead of her. They flew into the door in space, and it closed behind them.

"Sir, we've lost the Nintendo 64, and the Great Fox is retreating. Your orders?"

"Return to base. We've received new orders from Sandfire. Don't worry, they can't escape from us."

They continued their descent to the planet, landing in a forest. There wasn't really any clearing, so they landed right on top of some trees, crushing them. The door opened up, and Sonic quickly ran out. He looked around, amazed that he was actually standing on Mobius.

"Wow, this place is just as I remember it. Come on, let's go! Maybe the others are still alive!" Sonic tapped his feet on the ground, anxious to head off.

"But to where? We need to find where the central command area is, and then stop the one in charge." Link said.

"Well, it's possible they might have set it up in the old city."

"Where would that be."

"Huh, well, I'm not sure where we even are right now."

"Well, is everyone coming then? I think the 64 will be safe invisible." Everyone then nodded.

Once they were all outside, the door closed, and they began walking. Theo stayed inside the ship, however. He said his back was hurting, though it looked like he was faking it. Marina later said that he gets lazy sometimes. Only after a few minutes of walking, however, they were being fired upon. Everyone ducked to take cover.

"What the? How did they find us so fast?"

"They must have guards posted everywhere."

"All right, let's make a run for it. Go!" Everyone started running while lasers whizzed past them. They couldn't see the Zox with all the trees in the way, but they could hear them running for them. Zero, Fox, and Falco fired back at the Zox as they retreated, but it didn't seem like they were doing anything.

As Ash was running, a laser flew right past his head, missing it by mere inches. Ash felt the heat of it as it flew by, and even though it didn't touch him, his ear felt like it was slightly burned.

They jumped over bushes and foliage, and zigzagged between trees, but the Zox were getting closer. Suddenly, they heard more lasers, but half of the ones that were being fired at them were directed to somewhere else. Soon it sounded like the Zox were struggling with something else, and they were no longer being fired at. After a moment of pause, Zero, Fox and Falco ran over to check what was happening.

They came to a clearing in the forest, and found the Zox slowly retreating while firing back at someone else in the trees. Some other group was firing at the Zox, but they couldn't see who. Soon, three of the Zox were injured, and then another was struck in the head. As the Zox began to take heavy casualties, they retreated, and the fight was over.

When all was clear, they heard a whistle, and the rescuers began moving out from the trees. One by one, they came into sight. They looked like Sonic, only they were different animals. There was a rabbit and a squirrel, and six others. For some reason, they all had Zox laser rifles.

"Uh…thanks for the help." Fox said.

"No problem." The Squirrel said. "We saw that someone was coming towards Mobius and defeated several CDs. That wouldn't happen to be you people, would it?" She became quite anxious, hopeful that they were the people who had such amazing power.

"Yes, actually." Falco said. "Hey guys, it's all clear!" The others then came over to see who helped them, and once Sonic saw them, he froze; the Squirrel likewise. They looked at each other in disbelief.

"S…Sally?" Sonic puttered out.

"Sonic? Is that you?" Sally then dropped her gun and rushed towards Sonic, crying. They embraced each other long and hard. Sally then looked him in the face, and asked,

"Where have you been?"

"Never mind that, how are you alive?" Sonic asked back, tearing with joy.

"Heh, it hasn't been the same without you, Sonic."

"So what's happened since I was gone? I thought Mobius was destroyed." Sally then got a hold of her emotions, and became a little more serious.

"You mean when the Zox fired on the planet all at once? It was actually to strike fear more than damage. They didn't take much casualties, but the power they showed scarred everyone so much that they were able to take control as they stormed the planet. We shouldn't stay out here though, come with me." As Sally showed the way, Sonic walked with the rabbit. Both her feet and one of her arms were robotic, and she was quite strong because of it.

"So how have you been, Bunnie?" Sonic asked with a smile.

"Not bad, Sonic." Bunnie smiled back. "Well, great I suppose considering I'm alive." Sonic was a little shocked at the statement.

"Why's that?"

"Heh, it's been hard since you left."

"Then why didn't you guys come with us? I thought you were all coming."

"Well, we thought we were, but we decided to stay at the last second. We just couldn't abandon our home." Sally then came up to a large tree, and walked right through it.

"Huh? What happened?" Ash said.

"Just come." Bunnie said, and walked through the tree. Marina walked in, and once she went through it, she found herself inside the tree.

"Oh, I get it! It's a hologram. Cool." Right below her feet was a hole with a ladder leading down. They climbed down quite a ways, taking about a minute to get to the bottom. Once they reached the bottom, they found their selves in an underground base. The walls and ceilings were mostly bare dirt, but there were metal panels here and there for support. There were a few doors that led elsewhere, but the place they were in must have been the main area, for it was quite large. Several other Mobians were there, all working with something. Once Sonic walked in, though, they all stopped to look at him. They were all amazed that their hero had returned.

"What you see here is the last of us." Sally said.

"Are you serious?" Sonic said in shock.

"I'm afraid so. The Freedom Fighters are all that remain, though the Zox seem to refer to us as the resistance. But hey, enough of our sad story. Where have been all this time, Sonic?"

"We ended up in dimension N, on a planet called Nintendo. We live in this city called Station Square. It's populated by humans, but it's a pretty cool place."

"What about Dr. Robotnik?"

"Eggman? Ah, he's no threat now. He can't get a foothold on taking over the place as long as I stop him. You should have come with us."

"That sounds great, but you know we couldn't leave our home. I remember how we struggled just fighting against Robotnik, but now the Zox are even harder. They don't want to turn us into robots, they just want us dead. We do mostly guerilla warfare, but we haven't had much luck."

"Hey, don't worry about that now, because we're here!"

"Oh, yes, you were flying that powerful ship, right?"

"Yeah, it's called the Nintendo 64, and…."

"Wait, did you say Nintendo 64?" Sally was amazed at Sonic's words.

"Yes, why?"

"That's the one that destroyed the Zox mother ship, isn't it?"

"Yep. We took it down good!" D.K. said.

"Then, one of you must be Mario, right?"

"That's me."

"That's excellent! If you can defeat Karlnak, then you must be strong!"

"Oh, well, I mean…." Mario was trying to be modest, not sound like some powerful being.

"We were amazed when we heard that Karlnak and the mother ship was destroyed. We tried to take advantage of their weakness and take control of the planet again at that time." Sally's excited voice then turned to depression. "It was a bad idea though. We lost quite a few people and didn't make any progress, and we even lost Rotor."

"What? No! It can't be!"

"I'm sorry. He fought well though." Sonic began to cry again. He closed his eyes trying to keep the tears back. Rotor was a good friend, but now he was gone. "Now that you're here, though, I think that can all change. Oh, I'm terribly sorry! We haven't been introduced!" Sonic then introduced his friends to Sally.

"This Mario, Link, Ash, Donkey Kong, Zero, Samus, Marina, Fox, Falco, Slippy, and Krystal. Guys, this is Princess Sally Acorn. These are all heroes from dimension N. If you want to save Mobius, then these are the guys to help!" Sonic said with a smirk.

"Great! Come with me to the map, and I'll show you what we have been planning." They followed Sally over to a computer where Antoine was, and when she touched it, a holographic image of the planet appeared.

"I can't believe you're actually here, Sonic! We just might have a chance at winning with you here." Antoine was quite happy to see Sonic, which was different from his usual serious attitude.

"Don't worry, we'll get you guys out of this mess." Sally then pointed to the map. An ocean laid to the south of the tree-covered land, with a chain of mountains to the north.

"We're here in the center of the forest. To the east of us is a base where many of the CDs are, and to the north in the mountains is the command center."

"What's this city to the west?" Link asked.

"That's where the Zox live. They're just civilians, so we don't need to worry about them. To the west of that is where Robotnik's old lair is. The Zox have been researching the machinery there to advance their own technology. To the northeast of that is another base, though a little smaller than the other one. We've been planning an all out attack on these installations, but we just don't have the manpower to do so."

"But with us, you want us to take it all out at once?" Fox figured.

"Right."

"Then why don't we just use the 64 and destroy it all?" D.K. asked.

"If we did that, all the Zox would be on us. I'm not sure if we could handle that many numbers." Samus said.

"So you'll help?" Antoine asked.

"Of course!"

"Good, then let's work on the details." Sally then touched the map and brought up more detailed pictures.

"At the Zox base there is a power generator. If an explosion occurs in the generator, it will create an explosion that should wipe out the whole base, the only problem is that we can't get to it. At the top of the building there is a ventilation shaft where the excess heat comes out. The shaft is too small to go in, and because it's a critical point, they made the shaft turn at two points, so simply dropping a bomb inside wouldn't work."

"I can handle that. I can use my morph ball mode to enter the generator where I can then use one of my power bombs."

"You can fit in there?"

"This is a special suit."

"I'll just take your word for it."

"Then there's the old lair where they search the technology." Antoine said. "This point isn't too critical, but there are soldiers there, and if left unchecked, it could come back to haunt us. We just need a group to enter the research facility and plant a bomb."

"I can do that." Mario said. "And D.K. and Falco can come with me."

"Sure." D.K. said. Falco then agreed also.

"Fine with me."

"Hey, how do you know so much about the structures of the buildings?" Krystal asked. Sally then smiled.

"Hey Shaun, come over here!" As she called Shaun, they could hear heavy footsteps. As they looked to see where the noise came from, they saw a Zox soldier walking right towards them. The heroes from dimension N all took a step back and prepared themselves to fight, but then the Zox casually said,

"Hi."

"Calm down, it's all right." Antoine said. "This is Shaun; our double-agent."

"Double-agent? You mean you're a traitor to the Zox?" Link asked.

"Traitor? That's a rather harsh word." Shaun smirked. "I like to think of myself as a society corrector."

"What makes you say that?"

"Well, you see, I started out as a Zox soldier, but when I got out of training and sent here, I couldn't help but feel what we were doing was wrong. The government does a lot of propaganda telling us that the army is for finding new planets to live on and fighting against those who want to stop us, but when I saw the people here, I couldn't bring myself to just kill them. They lived here first, and we're wiping them out. Heh, I suppose it was at first because I thought they looked cute."

"So you're a soldier while you're actually helping the Mobians." Mario figured.

"Yep."

"So that's why you have Zox laser rifles."

"All right, let's get back to the task at hand."

They continued to talk out the details of the plan for quite a while. Once they had everything figured out, they took a good night's rest so they could attack in the morning. While the others were getting ready to sleep, Mario snuck outside. It was night time, and with the shade of the trees, it was quite dark. Once he found that he was alone, he put his finger up to his right ear, which activated a communicator hidden inside his head.

"Sandfire, come in." Mario said in a whisper.

"I'm here. What do you have to report?" Sandfire's words were heard inside his head.

"We have found the Freedom Fighters base, and the warriors are going to work with them to launch an attack tomorrow. I'm going to the research facility with two others to destroy it."

"Excellent. We'll have things prepared there."

"You'll free my planet after all of this, right?"

"What? Yes, yes, of course. See you tomorrow." Mario put his hand down, and started walking back to the base.

"I can't believe I'm actually working with my enemy." Mario thought to himself. "I hate having to do this to the others. They have good intentions." He then realized he was getting sympathetic, and tried to correct himself. "No, no, don't get attached to them! This is for the good of my people, after all."

"Hey, what are you doing out here?" A cat Mobian asked. He was on patrol, and happened to come across Mario.

"What? Oh, I was just getting some fresh air."

"Well, you better go back inside. It's not safe out here."

"Right. Good night."


	3. Chapter 2: Deceit Part 2

A/N: Sorry it took so long to update. This chapter turned out longer than I expected, so I'll cut it up into three parts instead of two.

As the sun began to rise over the mountains and the darkness began to dim, everyone gathered outside the base. A new day was dawning; a new hope was shining.

"All right everyone, this is it. This is when we take back Mobius!" Sally said, encouraging her team. "Now everyone knows what to do, right? Samus, you're going to the large base. Ash, you're taking Mario, D.K., Falco, Fox, Krystal, and Bunnie across the sea, where you'll drop Mario, D.K. and Falco off at the research facility, and you and Fox, Krystal, and Bunnie will go on to the smaller base. The rest are coming with me to the command center while Slippy and Antoine will stay here to make sure everything runs smoothly. The other Freedom Fighters will remain here to protect our base. Remember, don't strike until you receive the signal. Good luck everyone." They all split up into their groups, heading off on their mission.

Ash and the others had made it to the shore. There was only a few feet of sand that separated the dirt from the ocean. The waves sloshed against the shore lightly, and the sea looked calm. Ash took out his Pokeball and shouted the needed Pokemon's name.

"Wailord!" The red beam went into the water, and the giant whale Pokemon Wailord appeared in the water.

"Woah! I didn't know Pokemon could get that big!" Fox said in amazement.

"Heh, It's the biggest known Pokemon." Ash said with a grin. They hoped on Wailord's back, and began traveling across the sea, making sure they stay out of sight from the Zox.

After traveling for a few minutes, they saw the Zox city. For being their enemy, the city looked quite beautiful. The buildings seem to shine with a whiteness, and looked rather peaceful. Something seemed odd though. Up ahead, past the city, it looked like there was just more forest, when it should be the ruins of Robotnik's old lair.

"Hey, I thought there's supposed to be a research facility over there." Falco wondered.

"Oh, that's just a hologram." Bunnie said. "They put that up so the people living in the city doesn't have to look at that eye sore." As they got closer, they could see part of the lair behind what seemed like a painted wall. As they went further on, the hologram looked like a large piece of painted paper that separated the city from the lair.

"You're right. That certainly is an eye sore." The old lair seemed more like a dump. It was mostly old machine parts, all dark and dirty. What was once Robotnik's home was now a pile of old broken machines. They came up to the shore where the piles of junk lay and got off the Pokemon, and then put Wailord back in the Pokeball.

"Well, this is where we go our own ways." Mario said.

"Yeah, good luck guys." As Mario and his team started hiking up the mountain of junk, Ash brought out another Pokemon.

"Tropius!" Tropius was much smaller than Wailord, so it could not take as many people. Ash, Fox, Krystal and Bunnie crammed onto its back, and putting much effort into flapping its broad leafs, took flight.

Sally and the others stood hiding behind a small hill just beyond the command center. It was a mountainous area, but the land around the command center had been leveled. The area was mostly dirt and rock, so there wasn't a whole lot of area for them to hide in.

"Is everyone in position?" Link asked through the radio, to which everyone else affirmed him. Link then looked to Sonic and Zero. "All right, you're up." Right next to the base was a large satellite dish, towering at a good fifty feet. It was used to transmit and receive signals to and from the satellite. If they take it out, then the Zox wouldn't be able to communicate with each other.

There were two security cameras watching the area, so Zero took out his gun took them out. Sonic then grabbed hold of Zero, and ran towards the dish.

Five Zox were on patrol at the dish, but once they heard a gun being fired at the security cameras, it was already too late. Sonic ran up with Zero to the dish. Zero and Sonic quickly knocked them out cold, and they laid on the floor before they could fire a single shot. Zero then dashed and hoped over the electric fence that surrounded the dish, and ran up to the control panel. Zero could have easily shut it down manually, but he liked doing it the more permanent way. He took his saber and slashed at the control panel, and then at the power cords that led to it. The dish was out of commission, and everything was good to go. Link then shouted through the radio.

"Now!"

Samus was hiding behind a tree, waiting for the signal. Just in front of her was the Zox base. A lot of what she saw was a landing pad for the CDs. Several CDs were parked on the ground there, whether being worked on or ready for launch. Three large prongs came out from the bottom of the CDs to hold them up when landed. Beyond the field of CDs was a large building, which was what she needed to get to. The whole area was surrounded by an electric fence, and the area by the building was heavily guarded, so she needed to sneak through the landing area.

Just as she heard Link give the word, she looked for any Zox, and it being clear, jumped over the fence. Before she even set foot on the ground again, she morphed herself into a small ball. Her suit transformed her body into a sort of energy while the suit shrank into a ball. Her body, now in an energy form, was condensed inside the ball so that she wasn't crushed. While in this form, she could control the ball, making it go wherever she wanted.

Watching out for Zox, she rolled along the ground. She went under CDs and around them, making sure the Zox didn't see her. One Zox was starting to turn around and walked towards her, so she rolled behind one of the landing prongs on a CD, but she then quickly froze in place when she saw two Zox making some repairs on the underside of the CD. The two were talking to each other and didn't notice her.

"Hey, that new movie Order and Chaos is coming out. You wanna go see it tonight?"

"Sure, sounds fun. I heard a lot of people loved the book." The two then walked up the ramp into the ship, so she rolled on. Once she got to the main installation, a hanger door was opening and a CD was flying in for reloading. Inside the hanger, she could see several shelves of weapons and missiles.

A few Zox were reloading the CD with something, and as she tried to roll past them, one of the Zox caught notice of her, and a face of terror came over his face. Three ideas came to her mind: She could fight, run, or stay put. If she fought, her presence would be noticed, and she wouldn't be able to sneak in. If she ran, the man would probably chase her, and what he would think of that she wasn't sure. If she just stayed there, he probably wouldn't suspect it was her, but what he'd do then she couldn't know. Unsure of what to do, she just stayed there, and the Zox cautiously came and picked her up.

"Hey, George, careful with these things, you idiot! You want to break this? They're expensive!" With that, he carefully took Samus and placed her on a shelf with some power cells, which strangely looked just like her in morph ball mode. Once the Zox weren't looking, she rolled off, and came to a door. The door slid open and a Zox walked out, so she went inside, where hopefully, she would find a way to the roof without being seen.

Mario and the others walked up a pile of junk, and once they reached the top, they could see the research facility. They looked around, but didn't see a single Zox. Everything seemed quiet. Perhaps too quiet.

"I'm not sure about this." Falco said. "Where is everyone?"

"I don't know. They said that there wasn't a _large_ military force here." Mario said.

"Yeah, but one nonetheless."

"Come on, there's nothing that can take us down! Let's just go!" D.K. said.

"Fine, but watch your guard." They continued walking closer, keeping their eyes on everything around them. They came up to the premises, which was surrounded by an electric fence. Falco took out his laser gun and fired a few small blasts, cutting away part of the fence. They walked in, but still no one was there. There were several mounds of junk that lied around on the ground, probably from stuff that they were working on.

"You know, now _I'm_ starting to get an eerie feeling." D.K. said, his eyes quickly glancing all around him, afraid someone would pop out somewhere at any moment. Suddenly, Mario stopped and just stood there, looking at the ground.

"Mario? What's wrong?"

"I'm sorry, guys." As he said that, the small mounds of junk flew up as Zox soldiers came out from under them. In the blink of an eye, they were surrounded by countless Zox with guns pointed at them. Then two Zox came up to them and fired a white, puffy ooze at Falco and Donkey Kong. Once they were hit, the foam covered them from the shoulders down, and hardened. They had been captured by the enemy.

"Nicely done, Mario." Sandfire said, walking out from the group of Zox.

"Yeah, sure." Mario said, not proud of what he had done.

"What? Mario? How could you do this! Why would you help the enemy?"

"I'm sorry, it had to be done. You don't know how powerful the Zox can truly be."

"What? Argh, I'm gonna…!" Before D.K. could finish, Sandfire then snapped his finger, and some Zox brought over two short people with pale skin and long arms, wearing ragged clothing. As the Zox let go of them, they came up to D.K. and Falco, and placed their hands on their heads. Falco and D.K. started to fade into unconsciousness, and the ones that held their heads began to transform, taking the shape of the ones they held. Now, two Donkey Kongs and Falcos were in front of Mario. Since they only took the shape of their bodies, they were still wearing their old cloths, which barely held onto them, as their bodies were now much larger, stretching and tearing the clothes.

"Take these." As Sandfire said that, a Zox brought replicate clothes of Falco, giving it to the copy Falco. A replicate tie was then given to the copy D.K. They put their new cloths, and were then completely identical to the real ones. "Good job, now take your places." The copy Falco and D.K. went and stood by Mario, while the Zox picked up and hauled the real ones away.

"Oh, Sandfire, you might want to know that you have a traitor in your midst." Mario said.

"Oh really?"

"Yes, his name is Shaun. He's been helping the Freedom Fighters."

"Now that I think about it, I do recall a report of missing laser rifles. Good job. I'll take care of that. All right soldiers, set the charges and evacuate."

"What? You mean you're the blowing the place up?"

"Of course. That's what you were sent here to do, right? If it's left standing, then the others will suspect something. Besides, the tourism of this planet has been dwindling anyways. With the constant attacks by the resistance, less and less people have come. It won't matter if they take this one measly planet back."

"I see." Sandfire then walked away, as well as the other Zox. Falco then looked at his body, and looked like he was in deep thought.

"These people from dimension N…they're powerful. What if…."

"No, that's just Falco's thoughts speaking to you!" D.K. yelled. "Remember, they haven't seen just how extensive the Zox are! They've grown too far, too far for them to possibly be stopped!"

"I…guess you're right."

"Come on, let's get this over with."

As Mario sat in his cell, he looked straight into the guard's eyes. A sweat drop trickled down his face as the pressure mounted. This was his moment to turn things around, but if he blew it, he might loose his chance. He took a glance at his hand, then looked back at the guard, who just sat there, grinning back at Mario. Now was the time to do it.

"Do you…." Mario paused, hesitant if he was making the right choice. Mario took another look back at his hand, then went back with his previous assumption. It was all or nothing. "…have any sixes?" Then the verdict was spoken.

"Go fish."

"No!" Mario took another card off of the pile and put it into his hand. They were all sitting down playing cards. Two halves of a deck of cards was on each side of the energy barrier so they could take a card, while they passed cards through the food transporter, a small door on the wall that led to a conveyer belt that led food in and out without giving the prisoner a chance to escape.

"Thanks again for letting us play with you, Shin." Peach said to the guard.

"No problem. It's either that or stand and watch you all day."

"All right, my turn!" Luigi said, but then there was a beeping on Shin's belt, and he quickly grabbed his cards and put it into his pocket and stood up. Mario and the others then did the same. The door to the prison room then opened up, and two Zox dragged half-conscious prisoners in, throwing them in the cell to the right of Mario.

Falco and D.K. looked at the cell where Mario, Luigi, and Peach were with amazement.

"Well, that explains a lot." Falco said, finally realizing what's going on.

Ash and the others neared the base and flew down. There were plenty of trees, so they took cover in the forest. Everything was quite peaceful in the forest, but how peaceful it would remain they weren't sure of.

"Follow me." Bunnie said in a hushed voice. They followed her and stopped just as the forest ended, and they could see the base ahead. There was much more to it, but they were behind a large sector of the building, and they could see a small door with two Zox on guard, with a security camera above the door.

"We need to take out that security camera first, but the guards will notice us then."

"I have a plan." Ash ran through the forest, getting more to the left of the guards. Ash then held out his Pokeball and quietly said, "Natu." Once Ash gave him instructions, the small bird Pokemon hoppled out of the forest and went towards the Zox.

"Hey, what's that?" Both of the soldiers looked at the creature curiously. "Ever seen any creature like that on this planet?"

"No, but I'm no zoologist." Natu hoppled about, pecking at some seeds that were on the ground.

"Heh, look at the little guy." The soldier was interested in it and walked over to take a look. Just then, he heard a gun shot. He spun around to see that the security camera was destroyed, but then he heard another noise. He looked back at the bird, but saw that it wasn't there anymore, but instead a human-like creature with four arms. Before he could do anything, several punches were landed on him, and everything went black.

"Machamp, return!"

Ash stepped out from the forest, seeing the other soldier knocked out on the floor by Bunnie. They then went up to the door, but there was an electronic lock on it, and a password needed to be entered on the panel next to it.

"Now what?" Fox asked. Bunnie came up to the door and tried to wedge her robotic hand between the door to force it open. She kept at it until her face went red, but the door didn't budge.

"Eh, it's too strong."

"Here, let me try. Pikachu, thundershock!" Pikachu sent a bolt of electricity to the control panel. It sparked and began to smoke. "Now try it." Bunnie tried once more forcing it open, and managed to slide it open.

Inside was a gray hallway, continuing until it turned to the left with occasional doors on the sides.

"So where to, Bunnie?" Fox asked.

"Each base has their own power source in case of a power outage, so we need to go there. Follow me." They walked down the hall for a ways where it then turned to the left. They took a peek around the corner to make sure there wasn't anyone there. They didn't see anyone, but they did see another security camera. Fox took his blaster and shot it down, and luckily, no one was apparently around to hear it.

As they continued walking, they heard what sounded like a barrage of laser fire. It was coming from a door to the left, so Krystal went up to the door, and carefully opening it, took a peek inside. The noise got much louder as she opened the door, and inside was a dreadful sight. Several Zox were lined up doing shooting practice. Hundreds of lasers flew down the shooting range hitting robotic drones. Krystal carefully closed the door and looked away.

"That's something we definitely don't want to get into."

As Samus rolled through the hallway, she came across an elevator. Placing herself against the wall, she waited until the elevator opened. After a minute or two, the door opened, and a Zox walked out. With no one else coming in, she rolled herself in. Once the door closed, she returned to her normal shape, but then she a noticed a security camera right above her. Quickly, she accessed

(Replace the- with an underline, a shifted -)

(ocremix. or g/ songs /Goldeneye-007-Facility-(Hacker)-OC-ReMix .mp 3)

thecamera through the computer on her visor, and caused it to play a loop of before she got on. As long as no one was looking when she got on, no one would know she was there.

There were buttons for six floors and three underground levels, and then the roof. She selected to go all the way up, and waited as the elevator rose. Another complication arose as the elevator stopped at the third floor, and someone else was about to get on.

"Hey, do you remember that girl we saw at the diner?" The Zox asked his buddy. The elevator door opened and they walked in.

"The one with the chinchin?"

"Yeah. I'm going out with her tonight." The Zox said with a large smile. He then pressed the button for the fifth floor.

"Hey, go you! Make sure to bring sansoes!"

"Oh, come on!" Luckily, they were too busy talking and teasing with each other to notice that a woman in armor was right above their heads, holding onto the ceiling. Once they reached the floor, they walked out laughing. The door closed once more, and Samus let go, dropping to the floor.

"Pathetic."

On the flat roof top, Samus could see the air duct. About seventy feet away was a metal pipe coming from the roof with a whirlybird spinning on top, releasing the excess heat from the large generator. Samus rolled into a ball again and quickly rolled to the pipe. Coming back to her normal form, she grabbed and ripped the whirlybird off, went back to morph ball mode, and dropped in.

After falling about a foot, she hit a turning point where the pipe ran with the ceiling. She followed it, where she then turned left and kept going, then going to the right, and continued till where the pipe ran down the inside of the wall on the edge of the building. Carefully getting next to it, she looked down, and could see the light coming from the generator room. It was a long drop, and if she rolled less than an inch closer, she would fall in.

"All right, just drop the bomb, and run out." Samus said over in her mind. Once she felt confident of getting out alive, she released her power bomb, and rolled while charging her booster. She could hear the bomb explode, and a few small explosions followed, quickly getting larger and larger. She could hear a siren go off as she boosted through the pipe, trying to reach the exit as the explosions get bigger and bigger, shaking the building as she went along. She came to the end and laid a morph ball bomb, and just as it exploded and lifted her out of the pipe, there was one final explosion from the generator room. The entire complex was engulfed in the fiery inferno as the generator finally gave in. Samus didn't get away in time to avoid the explosion, but the force of it launched her into the air like a bullet, sending her back to the forest.

As the morph ball came crashing through a tree, she was slowed down by smashing and breaking the branches. Once she hit the ground, she smacked it hard, and bounced a couple of times before she finally came to a stop. When she returned to her normal shape, she wobbled a bit, having taken a heavy blow.

"Well, that has to be one of the craziest things I've done." She thought to herself. She then took a look at her suit's status and saw that her visor was warning her of low energy. "Wow, my energy is down to twelve? I'm lucky to be alive." She then took out her radio and put it up to hear helmet.

"Samus to base, mission accomplished."

"Good job. Come back for now."

"Will do." Samus started to head back to base, but to one look back. The black smoke rose high into the sky as the remains of the base were covered in a towering inferno. She then turned back and headed to the base.


	4. Chapter 2: Deceit Part 3

"It should be just up ahead." Bunnie said. They turned around the corner of the hallway and came to a dead end with a door. "Good, this is it." Bunnie then used her robotic strength to pry the door open. As they walked in, they stumbled upon two Zox in the room along with two security cameras. It was a round room with red lights, with the tall generator in the middle. A transparent wall surrounded the generator to keep it safe.

One of the Zox quickly grabbed his gun while the other ran to a control panel. Fox fired at the Zox's gun, knocking it out of his hands, where Bunnie then jumped up and slugged him in the head, sending him to the floor out cold.

The other Zox ran for the control panel where he could pull the alarm, but a bolt of electricity from Pikachu quickly stopped him, causing him to drop to the floor from paralysis.

"All right, I just need to set this bomb right here and set it." Bunnie held a bomb the size of a video tape and placed it on the wall surrounding the generator. She then pressed a button and it began to beep.

"Now what?" Ash asked.

"Now, we run." Bunnie said, already running to the door. They ran out the door, and an alarm went off, sounding throughout the entire base.

"Oh man, we forgot about the security cameras! They know we're here!" Fox said.

"Forget it, we just need to get out of here now!" Ash then took his Pokeball and called out Rapidash. Ash, Bunnie, and Krystal hopped on the fast horse Pokemon. There wasn't enough room for Fox, but he could run pretty fast on his own.

They ran down the hall as the siren sounded with the thought of the timed bomb constantly on their minds. It wasn't long before that Zox came out from behind them and chased them. Just as they turned the corner, a barrage of lasers flew down, just missing them. As they ran past a door, they heard it open behind them, and the several Zox that were practicing their shooting came out and started practicing on another target.

Bunnie then took out a small, round bomb from her pocket and threw it behind them. It exploded and caused part of the building to collapse, cutting them off from the Zox just as they were about to shoot them dead.

They finally made it to the door that they tore out and ran outside. A Zox was on guard outside and had found the intruders. As the soldier raised his rifle to shoot, Rapidash fired a fire blast. It exploded on contact, and knocked him down and severely burned his skin. They kept running and ran into the forest, taking shelter with the trees. Some Zox had chased them into the forest, but they stopped when they saw their base blow sky high. Base two was now out of commission.

Once they took the satellite dish out, they went to enter the command center. They hid behind another large boulder while they looked at the entrance to the command center ahead of them. Two Zox were standing guard.

"I'll handle this." Marina said.

"Good luck." Marina then hoped out from the boulder and dashed towards the guards. A small rocket was attached to the back of her armor which could giver her small, quick bursts of extra speed. She was about a hundred feet from the guards, and though she was faster than any of the Zox could run, they still caught sight of her and began shooting.

She slid to the right as a laser came right at her, then back to the left as another one came. Several more lasers followed, too many for her to simply avoid, so she leaped up into the air. The stream of lasers flowed up as she jumped towards them, but they were just a few inches off from hitting her legs. As she came heading back to the ground at the Zox, she coked her arms back, then slammed them down as she came to them. She hit their arms, knocking their guns out of their hands. Before the soldiers could even hold their arm from the pain of them being broken, Marina grabbed them by their hands and swung them behind her. The guards went flying into the air for several yards. When they finally came back down, they landed on the steep part of the mountain, and couldn't help but tumble down.

They then gathered at the door and prepared to go in, but suddenly, an alarm went off, its blaring noise sounding throughout the whole area.

"What? Did they find us already?"

"Great, now what?" Sally then readied her rifle.

"We move to plan B."

(replace-hyphen with a shifted hyphen, an underline thingy)

(smc .sq7. or g /miscfile/brandon/chemical-newdrums. m p3)

The command center lobby had a large counter in the front, with a door to the left and right of it, both with security locks. The right door opened, and a soldier walked out. He had just finished his shift and was going home. He headed for the door, but an alarm had stopped him. He then ran up to the desk and questioned the Zox at the counter.

"What's going on?" The receptionist typed something on the computer and brought up a message.

"Says here that the satellite dish has been sabotaged."

"What?" The solider took a hand gun from the holster on his belt and ran to the door, but before he made it, it blew open. The slab of metal that was once the door came flying at the Zox. It collided with the unlucky soldier, and sent him against the counter.

The receptionist had ducked under the counter, and when it was over, he looked over the edge to see the instantly-dead Zox under the door. Just seconds after the door had flown open, a hand tossed a metal ball inside. The receptionist took a look at it, but then ducked under the counter again as he saw what was coming.

Even after the bomb exploded, they could still hear the sound of falling debris. Once it settled down, they ran inside. Smoke and dust still hanged in the air, but they could see enough. Beams from the ceiling hanged down and the floor was littered with rubble. They could see light coming from a crack in a door, so they followed it. The door had been damaged, and was weak enough for Marina to knock it down.

The heroes now found themselves in a hallway. Since the Zox knew they were there, they had to hurry. They ran down the hall till they came to a point where it turned to the left and right, as well as continuing forward. Up ahead was the elevator that they needed to get to, but a hoard of Zox soldiers came from the halls to the left and right, and began their attack against the intruders.

Zero dashed towards the enemy while charging his blaster. With speed that would be hard to witness without blinking, Zero jumped to the right at the wall. He then jumped off of the wall and leapt over three of the Zox in front, and before he landed back on the ground, he fired his blaster at one of the soldiers in the chest, killing him on contact.

Sally ran forward while firing, and managed to strike down one of the Zox, but in her attempt she didn't notice one of the lasers coming towards her, and it hit her in the shoulder. The sheer pain made her drop her rifle and hold her arm, and seeing the blood trickle down didn't help ease her mind. In her state of agony, another laser came for her, and was headed straight for her head.

Sally didn't see it coming, but Link did, and used his shield to block the blast. While Link kept his shield up to protect them both, he took out a bomb and tossed it into the crowd of Zox. The explosion took out three of the Zox, and the force knocked the rest back, clearing a path for them.

Sonic came to Sally's aid and carried her on his back. They ran forward to make a brake for the elevator, where Zero was standing, having already taken down four of the Zox in the hall up ahead.

As they passed the hallway that crossed the one they were in, the soldiers that were still standing fired at them, and Marina took a hit in the back. She stumbled forward, but regained her balance and kept running.

"Come on, hurry!" Zero ordered. They got inside the elevator and closed the door. As they began to descend, they could hear lasers hitting the door they were moving away from.

"Sally, are you all right?" Sonic asked. Sally could sense that Sonic was quite worried, and didn't want to worry him more.

"I, I'm fine. Nothing I can't recover from."

"Marina, are you okay?" Link asked, seeing the black blast mark on her back.

"Yeah, it's nothing. My armor took the hit." They were moving down towards the command center to where, hopefully, they can take the general captive, and force the rest of the Zox off the planet. Their descent was cut short though, as power to the elevator was cut. The lights turned off and they stopped moving. A few seconds later, they could hear lasers being fired at the door like lightning. They had to do something fast, or the door would give way and they would be slaughtered.

Since down is where they needed to go and the elevator wouldn't take them there, Link took matters into his own hands. With the power of his golden gauntlets, he smashed the floor with his fist, breaking the floor apart and sending them into a freefall just as the shower of lasers burst through the door.

They had to go down ten floors, a trip that took about six seconds. Zero calmly fell with his feet ready to hit the ground, his long blond hair waving in the air as he fell. With his robotic body, he managed to hit the ground just right without causing damage to himself, even though the force made small cracks at the bottom of the floor. Marina landed a split second after Zero, using her small rocket to slow her down a bit just as she reached the bottom. Sonic still held firmly onto Sally as they fell, but Zero quickly caught them in his arms, keeping them from harm.

Link however, rescued himself. He slowed himself down by placing his feet against the wall of the elevator shaft and, using his sword as an extension of his body, placed his sword at the other end of the wall. Sparks flew as the Master sword scratched against the metal wall, but Link continued to slow down. The ground was coming up and he was still falling, but when he finally managed to come to a stop, his nose was mere inches from the floor.

Zero stood there with his arms folded, finding Link's efforts to be a waste of time. "Done playing, Link?" Marina smashed the door open and they entered a short hallway with a door up ahead. Just as they walked out of the door though, the elevator that had been smashed by the Zox's lasers came crashing down. Dust billowed out of the door after the elevator smashed to pieces against the floor.

"Glad that wasn't us." Sally said. They ran forward to the next door and Marina smashed it down with one punch, but they came to another short hallway and another door. They ran forward and smashed the next door down, and finally reached the command center. It was a large room with rows of Zox working on computers, with a large screen in front where the general would sit and command the planet. Just as they were about to storm in, however, there was a bright flash, and they found their selves back outside.

They were right back where they started, back in front of the command center. The heroes' hearts sank as they saw that all their hard work had been a waste. Just as they reached their goal, they ended up back at the beginning. A voice spoken through a speaker then boomed from behind them.

"Ha ha ha, you should look at your faces! Quite pathetic!" They spun around to the right to find a giant robot, about four stories tall. It looked like one of Robotnik's machines, as it had the familiar egg-shaped body. It looked quite similar in fact to the machine that Robotnik once used when he had possession of the master emerald. The man inside controlling it was none other than the general himself.

(replace-hyphen with a shifted hyphen, an underline thingy)

(ocremix. or g/songs/Sonic-3-The-Outer-Space-Machine-OC-ReMix. m p3)

"Fools! You stumbled right into our transporter! We have it set in place in case anyone were to try and invade us. It's supposed to transport intruders directly to our prison, but I figured if I killed you in battle, I would be sure to get a promotion. Perhaps I could even work with the War Master himself!"

"You mean you're actually going to fight us? Who's calling who a fool?" Zero mocked.

"What? How dare you!" The general then yelled in anger, and raised the robot's arm. The hand shot out of the arm like a cannonball and headed straight for the heroes. They all jumped out of the way, but Marina stood there. The fist collided right into Marina with enough force to squash a home, but she held her ground, and firmly held the fist. She then threw the fist back at the general and pegged the robot right in the head. The machine was knocked back and fell flat on its back, creating a tremor with its impact.

"Hey, can you guys handle him while I go get the 64?" Sonic asked.

"Sure, we can take care of this." Link said with confidence. Sonic then vanished from the scene with Sally. As the heroes stood ready to fight, the giant robot got back up on its feet. Its hand was connected to a large chain, so the general reeled the chain back in, and the fist whipped back into place.

"You just got lucky! There's no way you can defeat me, general of Mobius!"

"Are all Zox leaders so pompous?" Link thought to himself. The robot then started to walk towards them, making a heavy thud with each step. It appeared that it didn't have much speed, but since Marina's blow to the head didn't have a visible dent, its defense must be quite strong.

Up for another attack, the robot shot out a blast of fire from its nose and headed right for Link. Link protected himself with his shield while the searing flame was deflected around him. Once the roar of the fire had stopped, he noticed a sizzling sound coming from his bomb bag. Link quickly opened it up and saw that one of the bombs had been accidentally lit from the heat. To not blow himself up, Link chucked the bomb at the towering robot and hit it on its chest, but it wasn't any more damaging than a fly running into a human.

"Sonic better hurry with the 64." Link thought to himself.

"I have a plan. Marina, can you trip him?" Zero asked.

"Sure." Marina then dashed towards the robot's leg. The general took noticed, and activated the saw blades. As Marina was dashing towards the leg, a round saw blade twice as large as her shot out from the foot. There was only a fraction of a second to respond to the attack, and she barely jumped over the blade. While still in the air from jumping over the saw, another one shot at her, and she quickly dropped to the floor and rolled under it.

She was now just a few feet from the leg and dashed forward to grab it. She placed her hands under the foot and, with her powerful strength, lifted the foot right off the ground. Just as she did though, another blade shot out from the leg. She was holding onto a hundred ton leg, and wasn't exactly in the best position to avoid an attack. She pushed the leg away from her and leapt out of the way. She barely made it though, as the saw sliced off part of her hat's left tail. She managed to accomplish what she needed to do though, as the robot lost balance and once again fell on its back, just missing Marina.

With the robot on its back, Zero dashed forward and jumped on top of its face. Zero then began frantically hacking away at the face with his Z saber, hoping to cut his way to the general. At first it didn't look like he was doing much damage, but soon he could see scratches form, then a few seconds more the scratches turned to gashes. He was too busy, however, hacking away that he didn't see the approaching danger. Both Marina and Link then shouted to him.

"Zero, look out!" Zero looked to his right, but it was too late. The robot had raised its hand and swatted Zero like a fly, sending him several yards before crashing into a boulder.

"Zero!" Link started to run after Zero to make sure he was okay, but then the robot stood up again.

"Argh! No more playing around!" As the general shouted, the robot's jaw dropped and revealed a laser cannon. It started charging, and within five seconds, it let out a powerful white beam. It shot down towards the ground, and Link and Marina barely jumped out of the way. It exploded with the ground and the force blew them away from it.

Link rolled on the ground from the blast, and the general saw a moment to attack. He raised the arm and fired the arm once again. Link heard the fist heading straight for him, but he was still phased from the blast. The fist collided with his back, knocking all the wind out of him. He could hear his ribs breaking from the hit, and he screamed in pain.

Marina heard Link scream, and she ran to help him. As the fist whipped back into the robot's arm, Marina could see Link laying in the fist-shaped hole unconscious, apparently fainted from the pain.

"Link!" Marina ran to help him, but she was suddenly pushed to the side by Zero. Marina was pushed into the ground with Zero on top of her, and she then saw why as a stream of fire blew behind them. If Zero hadn't pushed her out of the way, she'd be a smoldering crisp.

"I know you want to help Link, but you won't be of any help if you don't watch your own back!" Zero said as he stood up. He acted as if he was unharmed by being whacked like a fly, but there were several points in his armor where it was cracked, and even a few of the spikes on his head were chipped.

"I-I'm sorry."

"I know what to do now. When he opens his mouth to fire that beam of his, that's when I can get inside." Another beam of fire then shot down towards them, to which they easily avoided.

"You want to get inside the cannon? Are you crazy?"

"When it opens, I want you to toss me in. You can do that, right?"

"Yeah, sure, but…."

"Just do it!" Marina and Zero then began to run around the robot. The general continued to shoot blast after blast of searing flame, but the insects continued to dodge the fire; they were just too fast.

"Dodge this, you pests!" The robot's jaw then dropped and the laser cannon began charging again.

"Now Marina!" Zero was right behind her, so she held her hand behind her and Zero grabbed it. Marina then spun him around and tossed him towards the robot's head way above. Zero flew right towards the charging cannon with his saber in front of him, ready to cut his way inside. From Marina's perspective, he went right inside the mouth as the beam fired. The beam was headed right for her, so she used her rockets and boosted away from the blast.

The explosion from the blast once again knocked Marina back, but when she looked back at the robot, it just stood there.

"What? What's going on?" The general shouted.

"Did Zero make it?" She thought to herself. As she looked at the robot for a while, she then heard what sounded like a small explosion, and smoke then started to seep out of the robot's head.

"Ah! Where are you, you little punk?" The general then moved the robot around in different motions to try to get Zero out. The robot moved its arms around in circles, shifted the body from left to right, and even jumped up and down a bit. It didn't seem to help though, as the chain on the right arm unreeled, and the hand fell to the ground.

"Crud! I can't reel it back up!" The general was now quite angry. The robot then moved the right shoulder forward, and a scream of pain was heard along with a small explosion in the head.

"Oh no, Zero!"

"Ha ha, I got him! Now for you, little girl!" Marina slowly stepped back in horror as the robot walked towards her, dragging the hand. Suddenly, they heard the faint sound of ship heading towards them. It got louder and louder fast. The general turned the robot around to look beyond the mountain out towards the forest to see the Nintendo 64 ram right into him. The 64 stopped in flight, and the robot fell down on its back for the last time.

The 64 lowered and landed on the ground, and almost immediately the door opened and Sonic ran out.

"Sorry it took so long. I went and got Mario to fly the ship. Are you all right?"

"Yes, but…." Marina was about ready to pout.

"Wait, where's Link and Zero?" Marina drooped her head, unable to say what happened. Sonic then looked around the area and saw Link on the ground. Sonic ran to him and lifted him out of the ground, and saw that he wasn't responding. Sonic then looked through his pockets to find a jar, and found one with a fairy in it. He popped the cork and the fairy then flew around Link for a second or two, then flew off.

"Link, can you hear me? Come on!" Sonic shook Link a bit, and his eyes finally started to twitch.

"Ug…Sonic?"

"Good, you're going to be okay." Sonic then lifted him up and carried him to the ship.

A bit of smoke was coming out from a hatch on the robot's head, and once it opened up, much more came spewing out. The general then popped out of the hatch coughing and hacking on the smoke.

"Oh, sure, _use this robot we outfitted, it's really strong_. Yeah right! Last time I use Robotnik's technology! " When Mario saw the general, he immediately ran up to him and grabbed him by the shirt.

"You! Tell me where Peach and Luigi are!" Mario shouted.

"I-I don't know what you're t-talking about!"

"My friends that you captured! Tell me where they are, now!" Mario was now brandishing his fist at him.

"I don't know, honest! Please don't hurt me!" Mario then felt Marina's hand rest on his shoulder.

"I think he's telling the truth. Come on Mario, he's beaten." There was a fierce anger in his eyes, but he then closed them and contemplated. He relaxed his grip and let go of the Zox. The general stumbled and cautiously crawled back, not taking his eyes off of Mario, but then Mario looked sternly at the Zox.

"I want you and all of your kind to leave this planet and never come back."

"Y-yeah, sure!" The general then ran off. While they both stood there though, a hand came out of the robot's mouth, and Zero pulled himself out. There were several more cracked spots in his armor, and his entire body had become smudged with oil.

"Zero, you're all right!" Marina threw her arms around him and hugged him, almost crying to see him alive.

"Yeah, I'm fine, Marina. Uh…you can let go of me now." Zero said, a little uneasy by this sudden outburst of emotion.

"Oh, sorry."

A few hours later, everyone gathered in the forest outside of the Freedom Fighters' base. Each minute that passed by, they would see a Zox space ship fly overhead and head for outer space.

"I never thought I'd see this day." Sally said joyfully with her arm in a sling. "And we'd never have done it without you guys. I don't know how we could possibly ever repay you."

"It's fine, you don't have to worry about that. We're glad we could help." Mario said. "So you're sure you can handle everything?"

"We'll be fine. Once all the Zox have left, we can sleep in peace. It will take a while, but I'm sure we can turn this place back to the way it was before the Zox came, even before Robotnik. We've heard the Zox talk about a planet not too far away from here called Sega. Once we get things settled here, we'll see what we can do about freeing the people there from the Zox."

"That's good to here."

"There's one thing I'm worried about though. We haven't seen Shaun since the Zox began leaving. I suppose he went with them. I mean, if he stayed here, the Zox might come back looking for him."

"Perhaps so."

"So you're going to keep looking for Peach and Luigi then?"

"Yes."

"I hope you find them." They each then said their good-byes, and headed back for the 64 parked just outside the forest, but Sonic held back.

"Hey guys, you go on ahead. I have some things I want to talk to them about first."

"All right, just don't take too long."

Once they gathered inside the 64, Marina then remembered something.

"Hey, where's the professor? He stayed here on the ship." Marina started walking down the hall and looked inside the dining room, and saw Theo laying on the floor. There were countless dishes piled on the table, and bits of food on him. Theo wasn't moving, and several different thoughts rushed through Marina's mind in the one and a half seconds that took her to come to his side.

"Did he choke on something? Did he have a heart attack? Did the Zox get him somehow?" Marina tilted up Theo's head and tried to see if he was breathing.

"Professor! Are you all right?" Theo's mouth then opened as a loud and long burp came out. Marina fell on her butt and pushed herself away, holding her nose.

"Ah! Oh, professor! Yuck! That's disgusting!" Fox then ran in the room.

"I heard someone scream. What happened?" A painful moan then came from Theo.

"I can't believe I ate the whole thing. Burp!" Fox waved his hand in front of his face to get rid of the smell.

"I'm…going to go back now." Fox then hurriedly returned to the others.

Half an hour had passed while they sat there waiting, and they were getting tired of it.

"I'm going to go see what's taking so long." Mario said.

"All right, but don't take too long." D.K. and Falco took a glance at Mario, and Mario took a glance at them. They knew what he was planning.

As Mario walked through the forest and saw that he was alone, he put his finger up to his ear.

"Sandfire, I'm in position for another swap."

"Good. We'll be ready." As Mario walked towards the holographic tree, Sonic stepped through.

"Mario? Sorry, guess I took longer than I thought."

"No problem." Sonic and Mario walked together through the forest on the way back to the 64, but Mario was being careful of his step. Suddenly, out of the blue, a white foam shot out towards Sonic. He was caught off guard, and was stuck inside the white foam. It instantly hardened, trapping him to meet his fate.

"Ack! Mario, help me!"

"Sorry Sonic."

"What? Come on, don't leave me like this!"

"I…I'm sorry. I can't help you." Several Zox soldiers had then surrounded them, and two soldiers were walking up to Sonic.

"Mario! Don't do this!"

"Please, don't make it harder than it already is." Mario looked away from Sonic, unable to look him in the eye. A soldier whacked Sonic on the head and caused him to fall unconscious.

"There, that'll shut him up." Sandfire said. "Good job, Mario. You're doing good." The group of Zox then started to walk away.

"Wait, aren't you going to have someone take Sonic's place?" Mario asked.

"Oh, we don't need to use one of you to take his place. You have the perfect excuse, after all."

"And what's that?"

"That you came to get Sonic, but he decided to stay here. This is his home, after all."

"Oh, I see."

"Go on now. I have other business to attend to."

Inside the Zox prison, D.K. was talking to the others about his sad story.

"…and that's how I got the name Donkey Kong."

"Wow! All the time I've known you, I never knew that." Peach said with sympathy.

"Ha ha, that's funny!" Shin said. D.K. snapped at the rude Zox.

"You want to make something of it, Zox boy? Open this cell and I'll show you a thing or two!"

"Ha ha, not a chance!" The door to the room then opened, and two soldiers tossed Sonic into the cell with D.K. and Falco. D.K. tried to make a brake for it, but the energy barrier went back up as he tried to run out, and ran right into the barrier.

"Huh? What? What's going on here?" Sonic was quite confused as he came back into consciousness.

"Welcome to the gang, Sonic." Falco said.

"Dang, you guys still don't see through that fake of mine?"

"What? Fake?"

When Mario returned to the 64 without Sonic, he was asked the obvious question.

"Where's Sonic?"

"He's staying." Mario tried to appear sad to not raise suspicion.

"What?" Link was surprised by the statement.

"He said he couldn't leave them behind. I tried to convince him to come, but he wouldn't leave."

"But…he's our eyes on this ship. He's the one who watches the sensors." D.K. said, playing along.

"Can you do it, D.K.?" Mario asked.

"Huh? I, guess I can."

"It won't be the same without Sonic." Ash said with a frown.

"This is his home after all. We should respect his wish." As Mario went to sit in the pilot's chair, Samus looked at Mario suspiciously. Mario had been acting a little strange, and when he came back from his mission with D.K. and Falco, she couldn't help but feel there was something wrong. Now that Sonic was gone, she was starting to feel a little worried. She didn't know what was going, but something was making her feel uneasy. Mario took notice of Samus's glare, and was starting to wonder about what she was thinking. If Samus was catching on, Mario would be in trouble.

Mario sat down in the pilot's chair and starred at the controls, unsure of what he was doing.

"What am I doing? These people just freed a planet from the Zox, and I'm hindering their combined power. Sure, Sandfire didn't mind them taking back Mobius, but still, he didn't tell the soldiers that. These people actually took down a whole planet-controlling military. They're…strong. What if…perhaps they could actually…."

"Mario, are we going now?" Link asked, wondering why Mario was just sitting there.

"Huh? Oh, right. Okay, let's go." The heroes flew away from Mobius, unaware that they were leaving behind Sonic.

Once the Starfox team and Samus took their ships out from the 64's bay, Ash turned around to look at Mario.

"So, where do we go now? Any more hunches, Mario? You were right about this dimension."

"Huh?" Mario still had thoughts distracting him. "Oh, uh…yeah. Yes, actually. Try dimension D."

"Okay." Ash activated the dimensional drive, and they left for dimension D.

Inside the Zox military base on their home planet, Sandfire walked down a corridor speaking with one of his commanders.

"The traitor is in place for your sentencing, sir." The commander said. Sandfire then sighed.

"This is the second one this month. These traitors keep growing by the week. We're going to have a serious problem if this continues."

"I'm sure it won't lead to that. We have been increasing our pep speeches to the soldiers."

"Still." Sandfire then came to a door. The commander turned around and went the other way while Sandfire stepped inside.

Inside the small, dim lighted room was a Zox soldier strapped to a chair. He didn't bother to try to get out, as he knew there was no point. Sandfire stepped up to the soldier as the door closed behind him. He kept his hands behind him and looked straight into the eyes of the soldier.

"So, you're Shaun? Ground soldier 3736 of squadron 372A? I'm quite disappointed in you, but you know what? I'm feeling compassionate today. Deny any of these rebel opinions and promise to me that you will serve the Zox empire."

"I'd rather die." Sandfire then frowned.

"I don't understand; what is it with you people? Why do you betray your own people?"

"What I don't understand is how you don't seem to care about all the innocent people you're killing!"

"My my, so touchy. What we're doing is for the good of our species. Can I help it if people get in our way?" Shaun was disgusted at Sandfire's casualness with such things.

"You say that you're better than Karlnak because of your intellect, but your heart is just as cold. You're no different than him at all!" Sandfire then snapped and yelled in Shaun's face.

"I am far better than that bone-headed oaf!" Sandfire then saw that he had lost his anger and quickly recomposed himself and backed off.

"Sorry you had to see me do that." Sandfire then closed his eyes and cleared his throat. "Eh-hem, as War Master of the Zox empire, I hereby charge you with treason, and issue the punishment according to the law." Sandfire then snapped his finger and a small door on the ceiling right above Shaun opened, and a device slowly hovered down towards him. Sandfire walked out of the room to leave Shaun to his sentence. Shaun couldn't do anything but watch in horror as the machine slowly came down to him.

When a Zox joins the military, that person pledges allegiance to the empire. Shaun broke that pledge, and that was a crime punishable by death.


	5. Chapter 3: Diamondous Isn't Forever Part...

A/N: Thanks for reading! And I'm glad you gave some advice. True, I sometimes jump from one scene to another, and I put in extra spaces for that, but fanfiction gets rid of the extra spaces, and putting a line in it, to me, doesn't look natural for a story.

Also, it's true I don't really have much similarities other than the CDs, but I suppose that's because I wasn't really thinking about it. As for making Karlnak someone like Bill Gates, I didn't want to do that, because the Zox didn't belong to any particular system or company. I did, however, try to make the Mother Ship look like the Playstation, but perhaps it wasn't quite clear enough. Oh, and when you said that I show the expresion of someone after someone else spoke, I think what you were talking about is the actual person who said it. I try do something other than always writing "He said," but I'lltry to be more clear from now on.

Wow, that was long. Oh well, on to the story!

* * *

**Chapter 3**

**Diamondous Isn't Forever**

In space, just beyond a Zox-controlled planet, a secret test was being held. Ten new Zox ships were being taken for a test run, while a team of designers from a CD were viewing the results. These prototype ships were much smaller than CDs; in fact, they were just about twice the size of an Arwing. They were triangular in shape, having a flat base and pointed at the front. It was rather slick, with the tips of the triangular body pointing out in the back. Two slits were placed at the front for laser blasters, along with several thrusters in key positions to give astounding movement control.

With the Nintendo 64 ripping through their defenses like nothing, it came time to develop a new means of fighting. Their trusty CDs had been sufficient in conquering planets with its sheer power, but power wasn't enough against the Nintendo 64.

"Good job, that's enough for now. We've gathered enough test data." As the ships began to load into the CD, however, a ship flew by in the distance. It wasn't that close to them, but it was close enough for it to see the prototypes.

"Sir, we're detecting a ship in the vicinity!"

"Is it one of ours?"

"No sir. It appears to be a cargo ship from Fo Lou."

"We don't have control over that planet. All ships, attack the intruder! Don't let them get away! We can't afford to let this information to be leaked!" All ten prototypes then flew towards the ship and opened fire.

"We're almost there." Ash said. As they traveled through the multi-colored tunnel between dimensions, they could see a light coming up. Once they hit it, they found their selves in the middle of a battle. Ten ships were fighting against one, and it hardly seemed fair. As soon as they got in the middle of it though, they found that they were being attacked also.

"What the? Are those Zox ships?" Mario thought to himself. "Did I just lead them to a secret test? Oh man, Sandfire is gonna kill me!" Link activated the ship to go into robot mode, so while they transformed, the Starfox team went to do what they did best.

(replace hyphen with underline; a shifted hyphen)

ocremix. or g/songs/Starfox-Godspeed-OC-ReMix. m p3

Slippy, Falco, and Krystal ran down the corridor that led to their Arwings. All the while they ran, they could hear the Great Fox being pounded by lasers.

"Damage is drastically increasing. Advise caution." ROB said.

"You head him let's move it!" The Starfox team quickened their pace. Once they made it to the hanger, they hoped in their Arwings and started up the engines. The propulsion unit began charging, and once it reached full power, they zoomed out of the hanger and entered the frenzy.

Fox saw one of the ships attacking the 64, so he decided to go after it. Once he fired at it, it stopped its attack and flew away from him. Fox then came up right behind him and fired, but just as his lasers were about to hit it, it slowed and tilted down out of the way, and before Fox could see that his lasers missed, the ship was already behind him.

"Dang, these things are fast! Careful guys!"

"You don't have to tell me twice!" Falco said. Falco took aim at a ship that was coming towards him, but it did a looping summersault and avoided the blast, and then returned fire. Falco took two only blasts, and already his shielding was down to three-quarters. Falco dove down to avoid crashing into the ship, but luckily, it went on to attack the 64 instead of him.

Falco came up to another one of them, so he fired like mad to hope one of them would hit it. One laser did, but the Zox then decided to come after him. Falco fired a stream of lasers, and just as he hoped, it did a looping summersault to the side. Falco fired right where the ship would turn at and hit it dead on. The blasts didn't destroy it, but it did back off.

"Dodge this!" Slippy shouted. Slippy fired a nova bomb at one of the ships. The nova bomb wasn't a very fast projectile, and the prototype managed to avoid it. However, it exploded after being fired for a few seconds. One of the ships happened to be in the way when it exploded and was finished off. Unfortunately, Samus was also a little too close to the bomb, and ended up damaging her landing gear.

"Hey, who's side are you on?"

"Sorry!"

Krystal was hot on the tale of a prototype, but couldn't quite hit it as she fired. The ship then swung to the left in a sharp turn, but while it did, Krystal landed three lasers, and knocked it off its course. Krystal was about to go for the kill, but another ship snuck up behind her. She was hit hard and lost her right wing, and continued to get hit. Her shielding was dropping fast, and would probably be dead in a matter of seconds. Thankfully, Fox zoomed by and landed a death blow to the ship just before it finished Krystal off.

"Thanks Fox, I owe you one."

The 64 finished transforming, but not without damage. While they transformed, they were being shot at, and their shielding was now down to sixty percent. Then, just as Mario was about to take control, something exploded on the ship, and knocked him to the side of his seat.

"What was that?"

"The armor on the left shoulder just gave in." Link said.

"We better end this quickly." Zero activated the energy blades, and the 64 formed a blade in each hand. Zero swung the sword straight down at a prototype, but it managed to dodge it. The 64 then swung the blades horizontally in opposite directions, but the ships again dodged the blades. More lasers pounded against the robot ship, and the armor continued to reduce. Getting annoyed, they then swung the blades in frenzy, and after a while only managed to slice one.

"I suppose that a split missile wouldn't work either, would it?" Link asked.

"Man, these things are just too small and too fast to hit! This is much harder than the CDs."

"Shielding down to forty-three percent."

"Argh! Forget it! Everyone, let's get out of here!" Mario then blasted forward and the others followed. The small cargo ship that was being attacked by the prototypes apparently had its thrusters damaged, because it wasn't going anywhere. Since the 64 was bigger than it, they grabbed hold of the ship and carried it with them.

The Starfox team went back inside the Great Fox, and the warriors from dimension N fled from the enemy, but the enemy was right behind them firing.

"We can't even outrun them?" Samus said worriedly. Since now all of the prototypes were right behind them and her friends were ahead, she decided to drop the bomb.

Samus's ship wasn't the best ship for fighting, but it did have some weapons, one of them being a nuclear war head. The prototypes were right behind them, and to have a bomb explode that close, they would be harmed from it their selves, but it didn't look like they had much of a choice. A compartment in the back of her ship opened and released the war head, letting it drift towards the enemy. While one of the ships were firing at Samus, it accidentally hit the bomb, and caused it to explode.

There is no sound in space, and no one heard the horrible explosion. The blinding flash sent powerful shockwaves, so powerful the it ripped the prototypes to shreds. The heroes were racing ahead of the blast, but they were soon hit by it. Thankfully, they were far enough to receive a less lethal blow, but that's not to say they weren't damaged. They were flung from the explosion like paper in the wind, and their ships barely managed to hold together.

The lights in the control room flickered, and sparks were coming out of one of the computers. Mario stood up and looked around the room, seeing that everyone else was now standing up after being thrown from their seats.

"Everyone okay?" Mario asked. The others nodded their heads, though they groaned from their miserable battle. Mario then looked to the main screen.

"Samus, are you all right out there?" No answer came. "Samus? D.K., her ship is out there, right?" D.K. looked at the sensors, and saw that her ship was adrift.

"Yeah, she's there. Her ship doesn't look to good though."

"Samus!"

"Her communication link might be out of order." Zero reasoned.

"I hope that's all. Starfox, are you guys all right?"

"Yeah, we're fine here." Fox replied as he popped up on the video screen. "The Great Fox is designed to take heavy hits." Fox was then cut off as the screen switched to a view of a human inside another ship.

"Man, I gotta thank you guys. We thought we were gonners back there."

"You're welcome."

"Just who are you people? I've never seen a ship like that."

"We're from dimension N." Mario explained.

"Another dimension, huh? That explains it. Can't say I've been to N. Well hey, if there's anything I can do to repay you."

"There is, actually. You wouldn't happen to know where the Zox would keep someone they kidnapped, would you?" The man looked quite surprised by Mario's question. He never would have thought of someone wanting to go after the Zox.

"Uh, no, I don't."

"Well, could you tell us where a Zox-controlled planet would be?"

"What? Why?" The human then started to get nervous. "Hey, you're not with the Zox, are you?"

"What? No. We're looking for some friends of ours they kidnapped. We're also on a mission to free anyone from the control of the Zox." The human nearly jumped out of his pants.

"What? Are you crazy? Well, if you really want to get yourselves killed, you can go to planet DOS, but if you're in a hurry to die, there's Diamondous right there. Man, you people are crazy!" He then aptly cut off the communication link.

"Do people really fear the Zox that much?" Link wondered. The man's response caused Link to reconsider just what they were up against. Mario then mumbled something.

"More than you think."

"What?" Ash asked, not hearing what he said exactly.

"I-I mean, they've probably seen more devastation from them than us, and haven't been able to do anything about." Mario said nervously.

"Yeah, that's probably true." Mario looked away and sighed.

"Man, I need to be more careful at what I say." Mario's thoughts were quickly broken as the video screen changed to an image with too much static to see or hear.

"…you…me?"

"Samus? Is that you?"

"I…y…com…."

"We can barely hear you! Are you all right?" The image started to get a little better, and they could make out the orange body of Samus.

"My co…down." The screen then suddenly became clear. "Is that better?"

"Yeah, we can hear you! I'm glad to see you're alive."

"So am I. The blast knocked my communication system offline, but looks like I got it working now. Can't say much for the rest of my ship though. Looks like I'm going to have to dock again."

Since no one was in good shape to go into another battle, Samus and Starfox kept their ships inside the 64 while the ancient ship was in stealth mode. Since they just destroyed experimental Zox ships, there was no doubt they would be hunted down. Since the Great Fox couldn't hide like the 64, ROB flew it out into open space where he would then wait for any request from Fox.

They waited for a day for the repair bots to fix the ship while they remained in orbit of the planet Diamondous, their next target. It was, for some odd reason, almost completely green. Everywhere they looked, the planet had green land. No ice at the poles, not even an ocean. It was quite odd that so much green plants could be there when there when there were only a few small lakes. An even stranger mark on the planet were the large brown circles. There were fourteen circles of bare dirt of varying sizes, but all large enough to be seen from space.

While the Nintendo 64 remained motionless, several Zox ships passed them by. At first, two came from the planet and flew right past them to inspect the wreckage sight of the prototypes. Another ship went into orbit to search the area for any sight of their enemy, and came within forty feet of running right into them when it passed them.

Everyone took this opportunity to relax. They took good helpings of food from the dining room and slept in the beds that were in the rooms on the 64. Something kept hanging in the back of Mario's mind though, and he couldn't rest. Making sure no one was looking, Mario had D.K. and Falco come into one of the bedrooms. Once the door closed behind them and no one was near to hear them, D.K. spoke up with anger.

"You better have a good explanation for wanting to talk to us! You know we shouldn't be talking together about our mission!" D.K. raised his voice, but kept it hushed enough for no one outside to hear.

"I, I know, but…I think…I think we should explain to them what's going on."

"What? Tell me your joking! You know what will happen to our people if we screw this up!" Falco said, sharing D.K.'s feelings.

"But think about it! These people were able to free Mobius. Maybe they can do the same for us!"

"Do you really think they would be willing to help us once they know we've deceived them?"

"I think they would. I know Mario would."

"Yeah, but Mario isn't here, is he?"

"I…." Mario was interrupted by D.K. as he pointed at Mario to warn him.

"Listen: these people are strong, but they don't stand a chance against the Zox empire. If you try to compromise this mission, I'll see to it that you won't be able to. You are not going to ruin our chances at freedom." D.K. then promptly walked out of the room. Falco took a glance at Mario, but then too walked out.

As Link viewed his monitor, he saw that all of the repair bots went back to their respective places and became idle; the ship was fully repaired.

"Everything is ready to go, Mario."

"All right, let's take her her down." Mario took control of the ship and began descending to the surface. They decided to land just beyond one of the circles of bare dirt. As they got closer, they could see a lot of dust coming out from the area of dirt, so they couldn't quite tell what was going on down there.

Once they landed and took a look outside, they had trouble believing that this planet was under control of the Zox. The land looked quite peaceful, as the sun was just rising in the horizon, showing the green grass as far as they could see. Trees that looked like their leaves were cut to be round were scattered around the land, slightly swaying in the light breeze. Small hills with gentle slopes scattered the area.

"So the evil Zox have control over this planet?" Theo asked. "I think I'll go with you this time; it looks safe enough."

"I don't know. The forest we landed in on Mobius looked quite peaceful before we were shot at." Samus cautioned.

"Well, let's go to that hill over there. We should get a better view of the area from there." They walked down the platform of the ship and onto the ground. The platform then raised itself back up, and the entrance disappeared with the invisible ship.

As the group walked on, Ash suddenly tripped and fell, landing face flat into the ground. Pikachu hopped off of Ash's shoulder before he fell and landed on the ground safely. Ash stood back up, but Pikachu looked at him and sighed that he could be so clumsy.

"You all right?"

"Yeah, but what did I trip on?" Ash looked behind him and saw something purple sticking out of the grass. He knelt down and tore the grass out from around it. The pointed object jutted out of the dirt, and as he tugged on it, he could feel that it was much larger than it appeared.

"Come on, let's go." Falco was growing impatient.

"Hold on." Ash had become quite curious. He dug around it, and after yanking on it for a while, he finally pulled it out. Everyone gasped at the sight. In Ash's hands was a purple jewel, perfectly shaped like a cut diamond as big as his head.

"Woah! Look at this thing!"

"Wait a minute…Diamondous? I think I'm starting to see a connection here." Link said.

"I think so too." Zero said. He took a closer look at the ground, and saw several more jewels sticking out of the ground at various places.

"Come on, leave it here Ash."

"What?" Ash was shocked that Krystal told him to leave it.

"It's not yours. Let's go."

"Oh, fine then." Ash grudgingly dropped the jewel and headed on.

The hill they were heading towards seemed to be right behind a giant cloud of dirt. It seemed to be coming off of the ground and floating into the air as if something was tearing up the ground. As they started walking up the hill, they could hear noises coming from several people. It sounded like hundreds of people grunting and moaning while digging at the dirt. Once they reached the top though, they couldn't believe their eyes.

It was a stunning transition. The planet looked quite peaceful and serene, but just over the hill was a massive bowl of dirt as far as the eye could see. The ground was being torn apart, but the worst part was that the Zox was forcing this upon the inhabitants. Rabbit-like creatures of different colors, a few inches shorter than Mario, were being treated like slaves, digging at the ground with shovels, picks, or just their bare hands to dig up the precious jewels that laid in the ground. They were lined up along the grass, digging away their precious plant life to uncover the valuable rocks.

Each one of them showed a face of great misery, and most of their bodies had missing patches of fur and a few scars, as well as being horribly dirty.

One of the rabbits that looked somewhat old swung a pick ax down at the ground to take out a large gem, but once he stroke the ground, the rabbit leaned over onto its knees in exhaustion. A Zox then took notice of him.

"Hey, you! Get back to work!" The rabbit tried to get back up, its legs shaking as he tried, but then fell down. "It's not break time! Move it!" The rabbit could only lay there and heavily pant. Since he didn't do as the Zox said, he was soon kicked by the slave driver. The rabbit still didn't get up, and the Zox continued to beat it.

"Maybe this planet isn't so safe after all." Theo said, slowly backing up in horror.

"This is horrible! We have to stop them!" Ash said, almost crying at the sight.

"Hold on, let's not do anything quite yet. We don't fully know what we're dealing with here." Samus reasoned. Just then, a loud beeping sound was heard coming from the left. They looked in that direction and saw a group of Zox on the grass holding two moving bags.

"Quick, get down!" Since they could see the Zox, the Zox could see them if they looked in their direction. They ran to the other side of the hill and laid down. They peeked over the hill just enough to see what was going on.

One of the Zox continued to hold a small object that made the loud beeping sound, and all of the rabbits stopped what they were doing and went to the source of the sound. Once they all gathered to where the Zox were holding the two moving bags, the Zox stopped the beeping and then started to talk to the slaves.

"We have a special treat for all of you!" The Zox said with an evil grin, speaking loud enough for everyone to hear him. "After many months of fighting, we have finally captured the two rouges!" That's when the Zox opened the two bags, taking out a green rabbit and a red rabbit

(Replace hyphen with underline; a shifted hyphen)

angelfire. c om/rock3/kaskade0/jjr-tranceelectric. mp 3

bound together, struggling to get free. Once the slaves saw the two, they gasped in horror. Some even broke down crying. The Zox then took the two rabbits and tied them to a tree.

"Because they have resisted our orders, they shall be executed! And by their own weapons! Men! On my mark!" The Zox then raised the blue, pen-shaped weapon and the small green blaster and aimed at the two rabbits. Some of the others started to scream in rejection, but they were quickly silenced by the slave drivers. "Three…"

"Oh no, we have to do something!"

"Two…" The heroes had had enough of watching this nightmare, and prepared to attack. Fox then stood up with his gun in hand, and the rest of his team followed.

"One…" Link then stood up with his bow, Zero with his gun, and Samus with her beam weapon. Then, before the Zox did, Link shouted,

"Fire!" Everyone in the crowd looked up at the hill behind them. Twelve people stood at the top with the sun shining behind them, all with a fiery justice in their eyes. The sun's rays sparkled off of their weapons just as they fired at the Zox, and the rabbits could see that they now had new heroes.

The Zox were caught off guard, and found their selves being hit with lasers and arrows. They returned fire, but the heroes took cover behind the hill.

"Guys, give me cover!" Ash said, and then called out Charizard. Ash got on its back and they took flight as a gust of air blew from their speed. As Ash looked at the melee of weapon fire below him, he started to question just what he was thinking by coming out here, but brushed it off.

"Fire blast!" Charizard cocked its head back and then threw it forward as he let out of blast of fire. It collided with a Zox, setting him ablaze. The other Zox took notice of him though and started firing at him. Charizard flew to the right to avoid a laser, but another one hit its belly. Charizard screamed in pain, but he had grown quite strong, and the blast was only a severe burn.

The Zox was about to fire at Charizard again, but one of Samus's lasers then knocked the rifle out of his hands, and another hit him in the forearm. With a clear path, Charizard dived bombed towards the tree with the rabbits. As Charizard came to a sudden stop on the ground, the air blew away from them like a helicopter. Charizard then blew a small flame at the ropes holding the rabbits to the tree and burned them off.

"Quick, get on!" Without looking a gift horse in the mouth, the two hopped on the flying red dragon. Charizard flapped its wings and pushed off the ground, once again taking flight.

"ROB, send down three grenades!" Within a few seconds, three grenades were transported at their feet, and they threw them towards the Zox. Everyone took cover as the grenades exploded simultaneously, finishing off the rest of the enemy.

With the fight now over, Charizard and Ash landed back down with the rest of the group. The green rabbit looked at his rescuers, shocked that such a miracle could have happened. He wore a red headband and orange wristbands.

The red rabbit wore blue wristbands and blue shocks. His fur was wild, like he never bothered to comb it. His face, however, also seemed wild, and Link was curious of his sanity.

"Wow…uh, thanks. I don't know what to say. I'd be dead if it weren't for you." the green one said.

"It's our pleasure." Mario said. "So, just why were the Zox going to kill you?"

"Because I'm trying to save my people! As you might have seen, our planet is loaded with jewels. When the Zox invaded our planet and found out about it, they enslaved all of my people and turned our planet into one big mine! There are several other sites like this, just as bad. At the rate they're making us rip apart our home, we won't have any in a few years! Me and my brother are the only ones who have been fighting the Zox."

"I see. Don't worry, because we've come to help."

"You…you'll help? Thanks! This is great! Oh, by the way, what's your name?"

"It's Mario."

"The name's Jazz." The green rabbit Jazz extended his hand to shake. "Jazz Jackrabbit."

angelfire. c om/music6/blackphantom/jazzjackremix. m p3

two different species shook each other's hands, forming a new friendship. "This here is my brother Spaz."

"Heh heh, Spaz! My name Spaz!" The red rabbit forcefully shook hands with Mario.

"Don't mind him; he's just crazy."

"So I see."

"Hey, let me go get our weapons real quick and I'll take you guys to a safe hiding place." Jazz then ran down the hill in a flash. He ran down to the battle-scarred land, picked up the two weapons, and ran back to the group within a matter of seconds.

"Woah, you're fast! You might actually be a challenge to Sonic!" Ash said in amazement.

"Who?"

"A friend of ours." Jazz then tossed the small green blaster to Spaz, while Jazz held on to the blue, pen-shaped weapon that was just as tall as him. Jazz then turned to the crowd of slaves that stood there, confused and unsure of what to do now that the Zox enslaving them were dead.

"All right everyone! Follow me and I'll take you to a safe spot!"

Inside the War Master's office, Sandfire sat at his desk, typing on his computer when a Zox entered his office.

"Sir! Here's the report on the testing of the prototypes." The Zox then handed Sandfire the data file to Sandfire.

"Good. You're dismissed." The Zox, however, still stood there. "Is there something else?"

"Well, you see…." He started to tell Sandfire what happened, but was quite nervous that Sandfire might shoot the messenger.

"Yes?" Sandfire was begging to grow impatient, so the messenger spitted it out despite his fear.

"The test ran into a problem. The Nintendo 64 showed up, and, well…they were destroyed."

"All of them?"

"Y-yes sir." The Zox was slightly trembling. Sandfire, however, sat back in his chair and looked at the data. Taking a quick look, he saw the report of how the prototypes faired against the 64.

"Well, this is good."

"Good, sir? You're…not angry that they were destroyed?"

"Not at all. Yes, the ships were destroyed, but just ten of them, faced against the 64, Samus, and Starfox, nearly mutilated them. I'd say that the test was a success."

"Oh, yes, of course sir!"

"Well, I suppose now we just need to come up with a name." Sandfire leaned back in his chair and looked at the ceiling while rubbing his chin. "Hmm…they were able to mutilate the enemy at a much faster rate than any of the CDs. Hmm, perhaps…M-rate? Yes, that sounds good, actually. All right, finish up the final testing of the M-rates. I want these ships ready for mass production by the end of the week."

"Yes sir!"


	6. Chapter 3: Diamondous Isn't Forever Part...

A/N: Once again I've made the chapter longer than I thought I would. Looks like this onewill be in three parts.

* * *

The heroes ran across the grassy field of Diamondous while the former slaves followed right behind them. Jazz had instructed them to run, and they ran as if danger was right behind them, but they didn't know why.

"Hey Jazz, why are we running?" Link asked.

"Because, it won't be long till the Zox are on us. There are satellites watching our every move, and they probably already know what's happened. A CD could show up any moment."

"Then where are we going? We're out in the open!"

"There's a cave up ahead, come on!" They ran up a small hill, and once they were at the top of it, they could see slab of rock that jutted out from the ground with a gaping hole, while the ground sloped down into it. They entered the cave that led downwards into the planet, and just after a few feet inside, it started to get dark, and wasn't long before they couldn't see where they were going. The dirt under their feet was soft, and they could hear the faint sound of running water deeper into the cave. It didn't look like anyone had a spare flashlight, so Ash called out a Pokemon to help out.

"Ampharos!" Out of the Pokeball came a tall, yellow, black-stripped Pokemon with a shining orb on its tail. The orb was quite bright, and lit the way for them.

(replace hypehns with underline, a shifted hyphen)

ocremix.o rg/songs/Goldeneye-007-Symphonic-Caverns-OC-ReMix.m p3

There were many stalagmites and stalactites, and there were several spots on the ceiling that were dripping into pools of water. passageways laid up ahead, and Jazz led them to the one on the right. The passage sloped further down into the planet, with the sound of water getting louder with each step they took. The sound of the flowing water and their footsteps bounced off of the rock walls of the cave, and with a large group, the echoes made quite a loud noise. The air felt moist, but as they came to the end of the narrow passageway, they saw why.

The water they were hearing was a large waterfall coming from a hole in the ceiling inside a large cavern. The water flowed into a large, underground river. They stood at a cliff, looking at the water rush by several feet blow them in a sort of canyon. The cliff they stood on ran along the wall of the cave to the left and the right.

Jazz walked to the ledge that ran along with the wall, telling the others to follow. It was a narrow cliff, and they would have to walk in a single line. It wasn't a walk for the faint of heart, because if they were to accidentally slip on the moist rock, they would surely fall into the canyon and be swept away by the river, being carried off deeper into the cave.

Link walked right behind Jazz, and couldn't help but find the planet quite curious.

"Hey Jazz! I noticed that there wasn't any water on the surface! Is this where it all is?" Link had to raise his voice above that of the waterfall to be heard.

"Yes! Believe it or not, but the planet's soil is quite porous, so all the rain we get goes right down into these caves! There are countless caves like this all over Diamondous!"

"So then the water evaporates and comes out of the caves, where it then forms clouds! But how come the whole planet has the same climate?"

"Diamondous orbits the sun in a way that it gets even sunlight, so everything is the same!"

"Amazing!" The procession continued along the cliff to where it turned to the right and to another part of the cave behind the waterfall. They could now see light up ahead. The cliff went along till it hit a dead end with the cave wall, and to the right was a hole in the wall with another passage downward. Light was coming from the hole, and as they walked down it, they came to a cavern that looked to be a home with torches lighting it.

"Jazz! You're home!" A blue rabbit shouted at the sight of Jazz. She ran up and hugged him, while giving him a big kiss. "I was worried when you didn't come back!"

"I didn't think I was. The Zox captured us. These guys here helped us out."

"Well, thank you! Oh, let me introduce myself, my name is Eva, Jazz's wife. Hunny, did you manage to free some of our people? You've certainly brought a lot back."

"Actually, we took out a whole slave camp."

"What? Are you serious?"

"Yep. These guys are pretty strong."

"Say, just where _are_ you from?" Eva asked.

"Dimension N." Everyone was shocked at the words.

"N? Are you serious? Are you the ones who defeated Karlnak?"

"Yes, actually, and we're here to help you." The crowd of former slaves started talking amongst each other; the rabbits could hardly believe their ears. The ones who defeated a War Master and the mother ship were here to help them.

"Speaking of which, just what are we up against?" Link asked.

"What?" Jazz said, surprised at the suddenness of Link's words.

"What kind of Zox forces are here? We've already rested up earlier, and we're ready to get to work."

"Well, not much, really. There are only about ten CDs here."

"Ten? We can get rid of that in minutes." Falco said proudly.

"Well, there's not much of a threat of the people here standing against them besides me and Spaz, so there isn't much security. There's a large escort when the transport ship comes in to take away the jewels, but they come once every three days. The main issue is the slave camps, being that many of my people are there. There are fourteen…well, thirteen, now. Each one is guarded by at least twenty soldiers. The problem of course is the satellites. Even with our speed, the Zox are already informed of our coming before we get there, so we haven't had much luck."

"We could easily take out the satellites with out Arwings." Fox suggested.

"Then it would just be a matter of taking down the slave camps and the command center, right?" Link asked. Jazz then frowned.

"You make it sound so simple."

"Trust us. We've faced harder difficulties."

"Well, with extra help, this is probably the best time as any to strike down those monsters. What the heck, I'm with ya! Right Spaz?" Spaz then jumped up and down excitedly.

"Yeah yeah yeah! Kick Zox butt!"

"Be careful Jazz!" Eva gave Jazz a hug, and kissed him good-bye, wishing her hero good luck.

"Uh, I think I'll stay here." Theo said. "I'll protect them in case the Zox come here!" Marina then sighed, seeing right through Theo's cowardice.

As the heroes made their way back through the tunnel and back into the waterfall cavern, they came across a problem. Jazz was in front, and when he came to the corner, he heard voices. Taking a peek around the edge, he saw light coming from the tunnel up ahead that led out, and then he saw a Zox soldier looking around.

"Dang it, the Zox are already searching the area; we can't go out that way."

"What about the others? They're in danger!"

"Don't worry. The Zox are too big to get across the ledge. They'll be safe. Follow me, I know another way out."

When Jazz said that there were many caves and tunnels under Diamondous, he wasn't kidding. He led them through a literal maze of passages before they made it to the surface. They stood inside the cave's mouth, getting ready for their plan of attack.

"All right, Starfox and Mario will run with me to the 64 where we'll then take out the satellites." Zero said. "The rest of you stay here until you receive word."

"Good luck!"

"Ready? Go!" At the shout of Zero, they made a sprint for the 64. Running at full speed across the sun-basked field, they kicked up bits of grass in their rush. They were quite some distance from the cave they originally entered, so the Zox didn't see them. Since they came out another way, however, it quickly became apparent that they didn't know where they're going.

"Um…where are we going?" Mario asked.

"What? I don't know, I'm following you!"

"How do you find an invisible ship?"

"Don't worry, I've been mapping the area as we go. Follow me." Zero said, and led the way to the ship, taking a turn to the right. They continued to run against an unknown clock, for at any moment, the Zox could be upon them. While they raced towards the rising sun, Zero spoke up.

"We're almost there."

"How close?" Mario asked, but seconds later, he slammed right into an invisible object at full speed. The others quickly stopped when they saw Mario fall to the ground.

"Mario, are you okay?" Fox helped Mario get up, and could see that a large bump was already growing on his forehead.

"Sorry Mario, seems I was off a few feet on the location of the front of the ship."

"You think?" Mario said angrily while rubbing his head. A door then opened up seemingly out of thin air, and they walked inside.

Mario took the controls and Zero sat ready in case they needed to fight, while the Starfox team ran towards their Arwings. The 64 started up and hovered off the ground. The engines increased in power as the hover pads lifted the ship out of the planet's gravitational pull. They continued to rise as the objects below them became smaller and smaller, up until they blended with the planet's surface.

"All right, there are four satellites, so we'll each take one." Fox said as they prepared to exit the ship.

"Right. Piece of cake." The bay door opened, and the Arwings flowed out. The four small space ships flew along the orbital path of Diamondous, which was certainly not an easy task. It requires an exact speed and distance to keep an object in orbit, and while manually flying, its all too easy to be pulled down through the atmosphere. Fortunately, members of Starfox have much practice in space flight, and they easily homed onto the satellites.

Fox was approaching the first one. Getting a good lock, Fox fired away. It only took three shots before it exploded, and Fox easily broke away from it before he ran into it.

"That's one down. Make sure to head back to the 64 as soon as you can. We don't need to draw any attention to us right now." Falco then found the next one, and took it down with ease.

"That's two." Krystal then shot down the next one, but just as the remains of the satellite drifted down to Diamondous, her radar picked a large object coming from behind.

"Ah! There's a CD on my tale!"

"Don't try to fight it! Just get to the 64!"

"I'm going!" Krystal sped onward, but it wasn't long before she was being fired at. A melee of lasers flew at her from the multitude of laser cannons on the CD's hull. Putting the pedal to the metal, she used her booster to get some extra speed. She was getting hit every other second, but the bay door was now in sight. Falco and Fox had already gone back inside, and Krystal did likewise.

The Zox figured they had her, but they were baffled when she seemed to just disappear.

"What? The target's gone!"

"Could it have been transported?"

"It didn't look like it. Wait, wasn't their reports of the 64 being able to turn itself invisible? Fire all cannons, full spread!" The CD fired lasers in all directions, and amazingly, some collided in mid-space.

"Ah ha! You can't hide from us!" The commander was pleased for having overcome such an obstacle, but then a light began to grow at four points where they figured the 64 was, and four large laser beams then flew right towards them. The green lasers grew bigger on the video screen as it rushed towards them, and that was the last they ever saw.

Since Link was not sitting with them at the ship's status controls, they didn't realize that while running in stealth mode, that blast to the CD had severely pushed their energy level down, and almost lost power to their invisibility. They may have had enough extra power to take down one ship, but if they were to be discovered again like that by several, the situation would be much worse. After Zero destroyed the CD, he turned around in his chair and looked behind him to look at the sensor screen, and saw that two more CDs were approaching Slippy's location.

"Slippy! Get out of there!"

"I've almost got it!" Slippy came up to the last satellite and took aim. No sooner as he destroyed it was he being fired upon by a CD. The 64 was on the other side of the planet, and even though it was coming towards him, it would still be a few minutes till he reached it, and that was too long. Laser upon laser was hitting his ship, and with the CD being able to fire at all directions, there was nowhere for him to run.

"I can't shake this! I…I…." Slippy didn't see any way out of the situation short of fighting. He wouldn't make it to the 64 on time and there was no where to run. Shaking off his fear, he decided to attack it, but before he did, he sent one last message. "Fox…take care of yourself."

"What? Slippy, no!"

Slippy turned the Arwing around and headed straight towards the CD. He was getting hit even more now, and his ship would surely fall apart if he only used his lasers to attack, so he fired a nova bomb. A glowing round bomb shot from the Arwing and headed right for the CD's side, but to his horror, the CD flipped itself on its side, and the bomb flew right through the center hole of the ship.

"Wow, I'm actually…a gonner." Slippy swallowed his fear as his armor gave way, and an explosion on the side pushed the Arwing hard down towards the planet. The control panels went blank as the power was lost, and smoke flowed out from the engine. Slippy was now in a freefall through the atmosphere.

"Quick, after him!" Fox shouted. Mario flew the ship towards Slippy, but they wouldn't make it until he crashed into the surface. Fire engulfed the 64 as they quickly descended through the atmosphere, and once they passed through a blanket of clouds, they could see something on the ground up ahead. There was a small crater, and a trail of smoke was rising from it. To their dismay, it was indeed Slippy's ship.

When they landed, they got out of the ship and rushed to the battered Arwing. The main body was broken in half right in the middle, the left wing was ten feet away from the wreckage, the right wing was completely missing, and general parts laid everywhere. The pilot, however, was missing, though whether that was good or bad was yet to be seen. Krystal looked at the site, holding her hand to her mouth in fear.

"Slippy…no."

"Argh…Slippy, you knucklehead, why'd ya have to go and do this!" Falco shouted. He was saddened by the loss of a friend, but showed it through anger.

"Hey, don't count me out just yet!" Everyone looked to the sky to see where the voice came from, and their hearts were renewed with joy. Slippy had used the emergency ejection, and was now coming down on a parachute.

"Slippy! You're alive!" Fox shouted, jumping for joy. Slippy stumbled onto the ground when he hit it and released the parachute. A helmet was covering his face, which was used to breathe oxygen. It was a part of the ejection system, since it's possible they might end up in a environment that didn't have oxygen. Slippy took it off and joined the others.

"Man, there's no way I can salvage my ship!" Slippy said, looking at his ruined Arwing. "There might be a few working parts, but I'll have to build a new one from scratch."

"But at least you're alive! Don't do something like that again!" Krystal warned.

"We can take it up in the 64 for you." Mario suggested.

"No thanks; this is a job for ROB." Slippy then took out his communicator and called for ROB to take the ship up. The parts of the Arwing began to glow a bright white, then it simply became a wire frame, and it then disappeared in a ring of light. With things taken care of, Fox redirected his thoughts back to the mission.

"Well, now that the satellite job is taken care of, it's time to strike the camps."

"You guys go on ahead; we have some business to take care of. The others aren't too far from here, so you should be able to meet up with them" With that, Zero and Mario went back inside the 64 and took flight. While Mario set the ship to their next location, Mario took the radio out of his pocket.

"The satellites are down; strike at will."

Back outside the cave, the rest of the team received Mario's message.

"All right, let's go! Follow me!" Jazz started running on ahead and the rest followed. Thankfully, it was not a very large planet, and a slave camp was not too far, and would only take about ten minutes to get to. With the element of surprise on their side, they should be able to take control of the camp with ease, especially with heroes like them.

It wasn't long till they saw the familiar dirt cloud rising from the ground. They slowed their pace down to a walk, and continued just until they could see the enemy. Coming up over the edge of the dirt bowl, they saw the rabbits worked to death by the Zox. There were twenty slave drivers in all.

"You guys ready?" Jazz whispered. Everyone nodded their heads. "Three…two…one…." Without saying go, they all rushed into battle.

Since the ground sloped down into the large pit, Ash summoned the Pokemon Golem. With its round, rock-solid body, Ash had Golem roll down the hill in front of him. Golem steadily picked up speed while Ash ran behind him. A Zox took notice and fired at Golem, but the laser merely bounced off of his rock body. Thinking that the laser would have stoped it, the Zox didn't move out of the way, and was smacked by a rolling boulder moving at sixty miles per hour. Golem then steered to the left and stroke down another solider of the empire.

When in the middle of the battle, one of the soldiers took notice of Ash and fired his laser rifle. Golem saw his master in danger, and quickly jumped in front of him. The laser again bounced off of him, so he continued to stay by his side. With Golem as a shield, Ash had Pikachu hit the Zox with its lightning attack.

The battle was now in full heat, and the dirt cloud had grown even bigger, engulfing the entire area. Visibility had now lowered to about only ten feet. A hectic melee of fighting was going on, so the rabbit slaves took their chance and ran away from their captors.

angelfire.c om/music6/blackphantom/MischiefMakers.m p3

Marina had been fighting these Zox for a while now, and was getting a hang of it. Several lasers were being fired at her from one soldier, but she managed to avoid them using her rockets to boost out of the way. Rocketing forward to her enemy, she delivered an uppercut to his jaw. With her superior strength, the massive Zox flew up several feet before coming back down. She stepped up to him to make sure he wouldn't get back up again, but another laser whizzed right past her head. She jerked her head to the right to see her enemy. Her hat tails whipped through the air like two large ponytails, and looked at her enemy the gun with a fierceness in her eyes.

A jewel was lying in the ground next to her feet, so in one quick movement, she swung her foot at it, kicking it right towards the Zox. It hit him in the chest and knocked him down, but Marina could see that it wasn't enough. Before the beast could stand again, Marina grabbed him, swung him around, and then threw him far into the air beyond sight.

Jazz and Spaz in the meantime were enjoying themselves. Not that they delighted in bloodshed, but that they were finally taking back their torn planet. With their amazing speed, they both ran while firing their guns as they went.

Jazz came up to a Zox and rapidly fired his gun, but the soldier's armor was able to withstand the first five small blasts from his gun. The blasts knocked him backing, affording him more time, but it wasn't until the sixth shot that it managed to penetrate the armor, and even then the beast's thick skin provided some protection. Before Jazz was able to blow the Zox away, it managed to fire a laser at him. It came within less than an inch of his head, and singed the fur on his floppy ears.

"Spaz, you better switch to toaster!" With that, they both pressed a button on their guns, and switched their ammo to the toaster. Spaz ran up behind a Zox and fired with his new ammo, firing a fire ball. The flaming ball hit the unsuspecting soldier in the back and penetrated his armor, while severely burning his skin. After screaming in agony, the soldier fell to the ground, blacking out from the scorching pain.

"Ha ha ha ha!" Spaz became wiled with excitement, almost to the point of an evil psychotic. Jazz let out a deep sigh; he always worried about him from time to time.

Most of the fighting that had been going on in this war had to deal with space battles and giant robots, something that wasn't Link's specialty. Link was starting to feel out of practice, but now he had his chance. He didn't really like the idea of killing people left and right, but he didn't have much of a choice when it came to people like the Zox.

(replace the hyphens with underlines, a shifted hyphen. NOTE: leave the hyphen between CarboHydroM and put an underline before and after the hyphen)

vgmix.c om/songs/CarboHydroM-The-Imprisoning-War(Legend-of-Zelda-A-Link-to-the-Past).m p3

Thoughthe cloud of dirt made things hard to see, Link could still hear well, which is why he managed to duck as a fist swung at him from behind. Link spun around to see a Zox towering in front of him with apparently no weapon. It seemed odd to find a Zox without the ever present laser rifle, but Link didn't give it much thought. The Zox punched forward right for his head, but with Link's golden gauntlets, he grabbed his hand. The soldier then tried to punch with the other fist, but Link then grabbed it with his other hand. Link and the Zox were now in a power struggle to topple the other, and though his golden gauntlets gave him amazing strength, he found himself struggling with the monster.

Link tried to shove him to the right, but the Zox held his place. He tried the left, but still the same. Then, using his better intelligence, Link let go and dropped on his back. With the Zox having tired to push forward, he lost his balance when Link let go and stumbled forward, where Link then pushed him over with is feet, and the Zox fell flat on his face. Link quickly got to his feet with his sword, jumped towards the Zox with his sword pointed down, and drove it through the monster's gut. Seeing that it was enough, he withdrew his bloody sword, and wondered just how many more lives he would have to take. Link then quietly said something to himself.

"I hope this will be a lesson to you people. One who takes control through oppression will one day find themselves in a revolt by the oppressed. Your day has come."

The battle did not take long; it only took about ten minutes. The noise of fighting slowly died out as Zox fell, until everything became deathly silent. With no one moving, the dust cloud began to lift, and they could see that all the Zox were on the ground, either dead or severely wounded.

Samus used her visor to scan the area. She found that fourteen of the twenty Zox were dead, the rest either unconscious or too injured to stand. Among her teammates, everyone was okay except for D.K. He had received a blow to the knee, and it was bleeding pretty good. Everyone else just had small burns and bruises; the surprise attack was successful. Samus quickly went to help Donkey Kong who was sitting on the ground.

"How are you?" Samus asked as if she was a doctor.

"I'm fine." D.K. said through his pain, trying to not show weakness. He then tried to stand up, but sat back down when a pain jolted up his leg, and he grimaced in pain.

"You better lay here."

"Maybe…ouch…that's a good idea."

"We should probably wait until Mario comes back with the 64 anyways, since we could use a ride to the next camp." Samus then motioned for Link to come and assist with bandaging D.K.

When the dirt had cleared and Ash caught a good sight of the after math, he became terrified at what he had done. All around him laid dead people. Ash knew that they were the enemy, and that it had to be done, but that sight of blood by his and his friends hands made in shrink in fear. As a Pokemon trainer, he was used to fighting, but not to the death.

"What…what have I done?" He then heard a moan come from someone.

"How…?" Everyone looked to see where it came from, and saw a soldier looking into space. "How could we loose? We're the mighty Zox."

"You were up against us, that's why." Samus said rather coldly while looking down at him.

"You will pay for…this! The empire will never…loose to….you…." Before he could finish, his spirit left his body.

"And that is why we fight you." Link said.

"Hey, you all right?" Ash turned around to see Jazz looking up at him with concern.

"It's just…."

"Hey, don't think about it. This is war. Even more people will die if we don't do something."

"I suppose…you're right." Ash looked down at the ground, confused and upset with himself.


	7. Chapter 3: Diamondous Isn't Forever Part...

Inside the central command center, everyone was scrambling to fix their situation. The general paced up and down the room, looking at all the Zox at the computers.

"This can't be good." The general thought to himself. "First we receive reports of the 64 in the area. Then later, we loose the connection with our satellites. Then CD seven reports seeing what might be an Arwing just before we loose contact with them. Then, CD three confirms that they shot down an Arwing. If Starfox is here, then the 64 is here." The general then spoke up loudly.

"Are those reinforcements here yet?"

"No sir, we haven't received word yet!"

"We're going to be dead meat if we don't get backup soon! I want all CDs on patrol to make up for satellite observance!" A Zox with a headphone then turned around in his seat to look at the general.

"Sir, I just lost contact with CD two!"

"What? What happened?"

"I don't know, I just…wait, now CD five is gone!"

"Somebody tell me what's going on here!"

"CD eight is gone!"

"It's an attack! Have all remaining CDs find the enemy and open fire!"

"Sir…" The Zox in charge of communication now looked scarred. "I…I…."

"Spit it out!"

"I've lost contact with all ships." His voice was filled with despair.

"No! It has to be the 64! Try to send a message to…." Before the general could finish, the roof above their heads came falling down with a bursting crash. A large hole was made in the ceiling, and the debris crushed several Zox at their work stations. As they wondered what happened, an object phased into sight. Now visible, they saw the fist of the 64 inside their base. Looking up out of the hole, they saw the head of the 64 looking down. A voice then boomed from the massive machine.

"We have some things to talk about."

With the battle being over, the heroes sat outside of the dirt bowl. Fox's team had met up with them, so now they rested until the 64 arrived.

Link laid on the ground looking up into the clouds. A slight breeze pushed a few clouds slowly across the sky. Link took it all in, enjoying the calm before their next fight. The calmness was broken, though, when the Nintendo 64 flew overhead, blocking out the sunlight. The ship descended to the ground, and the door then opened up with Mario coming out.

"Need a lift?" Once everyone got inside, Link came up to Mario to see how things went.

"So how did it go?"

"Nowhere. I questioned the general where Peach and Luigi are, but I still didn't get any answer. I wonder if any of these planet rulers know?"

"Don't worry, we'll find them. What did you do with the central command center then?"

"We leveled it."

"Really? Just like that?"

"No, actually. Once we started pounding the base, they surrendered. I guess some Zox know when to give up. So then they started walking and we started blasting the base."

"That's good."

"So, are you guys up for another round then?"

"I think so. D.K. will have to stay here though."

"Right."

"But with you guys helping us this time, it should go even quicker."

"Even quicker?" Mario thought to himself. Once again he was amazed at how easily they were taking a planet back from the Zox.

After resting for an hour, they landed the ship in stealth mode a quarter of a mile away from the next camp. This time, the whole gang got ready to strike, except for D.K. anyways. As they stood outside the ship getting ready to go, Mario noticed that Ash was looking at the ground in a depressed way.

"Hey, you all right?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, sure." Mario could see that something was bothering Ash, but decided to not press it further. The group walked towards the slave camp, but once they came within 1500 feet of it, one of the Zox took notice them, and began sounding the alarm.

"All right guys, looks like we'll have to rush them! Let's go!" With their weapons ready, they started running towards the Zox. They weren't quite in firing range, so the two forces merely ran towards each other. The Starfox team had gatling guns ready, Zero had his gun in hand, and Ash had Golem out since the lasers don't seem to do much to him.

"My mission is to replace the warriors with my own people, and hinder their progress. But at the same time, play the part of Mario to not raise suspicion. So, in order to not raise suspicion, I have to fight the Zox, the ones I'm supposed to be helping." Mario took a glance to his right to see Falco running into battle along with him. For some reason, he was actually smiling. "Playing the part of Mario is part of my mission, so in order to fulfill my mission, I have to fight the Zox." Mario then smirked. "I'm going to enjoy this."

angelfire.c om/music6/blackphantom/marioisawsome.mp 3

They were now within firing range, and lasers began swarming towards them. Mario reached into his pocket and pulled out a feather. Unleashing its power, a yellow magic cape appeared on his back. A laser was heading right towards him, so he flapped his cape in front of him and reflected the laser back at the Zox. The laser rebounded right towards its shooter, and hit him right in the neck. More lasers came towards him, and he continued to do the same; flapping his cape and giving the lasers back to the Zox.

Each and every Zox went to fight, and had left the rabbits alone, so they took their chance and ran away. The Zox ran towards the heroes, so when they met each other, they were not in the mine, and instead out on the green grass. Once they got close enough, Mario jumped and took flight, soaring straight up. Once he was a few hundred feet up, he then dived back down like a rocket, and slammed right on top of a slave driver. Now that Mario was in the middle of things, several guns were pointed at him. Five guns fired at him, so Mario spun around in circles. His cape swung out, so when the lasers hit it, they all rebounded back at the Zox, hitting them in vulnerable places. With five Zox around him on the floor dead, Mario stopped spinning and looked at one of the slave drivers, taunting him to come and fight.

Falco, too, was enjoying himself. He was letting out all the hate and suffering he had suffered by the hands of the empire out in his gatling gun. The stream of plasma bullets rushed from the gun, mowing down the Zox that got in his way. For once in his life, he was actually fighting his hated enemy up close and personal.

Since they were fighting on the grass, they no longer had the dirt cloud cover like last time, and Marina found it to be more challenging. In the middle of a battle, one of the Zox had accidentally backed up into her. They both spun around to see each other, and the beast quickly pointed his rifle at her. Not wasting any time, Marina grabbed the gun and squashed it under her fist. Unfortunately, she didn't know that doing so would cause the gun to overload and explode.

The explosion wasn't very big, but it was enough to knock both of them back. The gun had exploded right in her face, right where her armor didn't protect. Her hat was knocked off, and her face was badly cut up from the shrapnel of the gun. Worst of all, she had gone temporarily blind from the bright light of the explosion, and didn't see the Zox get back up on his feet and pummel her. Her sore head was smacked by the Zox's fist, dislocating her jaw. Since she couldn't see, she could only feel her body being punched by a strong being, and if it continued, she probably wouldn't feel either.

"Ahh! Help!"

"Marina!" Zero had heard Marina's cry for help as he shot down one of the soldiers, so he dropped his fighting and rushed to her aid.

angelfire.c om/music6/blackphantom/rizeofzero.m p3

Marina was about a hundred feet ahead of him, so he dashed forward with his saber in hand. One of the Zox came and stood in his way, so without slowing down the least, Zero lashed out his saber, cutting the Zox cleanly in half. He continued to dash forward and incredible speed, sliding past those near him and cutting those in his way. It wasn't long before he came up to Marina's assailant, so without hesitation, he thrust his saber forward, piercing his stomach. The slave driver fell to the floor dead, and Zero picked up Marina.

"Marina, are you okay?" Marina looked up at Zero with her blackened, bloody face, only able to see the crimson outline of her rescuer.

"Zero? You saved me." Marina weakly smiled.

"Don't worry, I'll take you out of here." With the injured, green-haired girl in his arms, Zero dashed out of the battle scene.

Ash was once again in the heat of battle with Golem protecting him, except for now, he was hesitant to have Pikachu strike. One by one the Zox around him were falling dead, and what was especially gruesome was when he saw Zero cut one in half. It was all too much, and he wanted to just run away. But then he saw something: One of the Zox had in his left arm one of the rabbits, and was using him as a shield. The Zox figured that the so-called heroes wouldn't strike such a target.

The orange rabbit was being held by the chest, and was struggling to get free. Ash could see in his eyes that he was terrified, for any moment the soldier could use him to take the hit of a weapon. As the Zox came closer to him, the rabbit caught site of Ash, and tried to plead for help.

"Help…please, help me…." The poor creature tried to gasp out his words, but the Zox was squeezing him tight, and could barely breath. The rabbit held out its arms, begging for a savior. Ash had all he can stand.

"Hey, let him go!" Ash said as loud as he can. The Zox merely pointed his gun at him. He fired, but Golem jumped in the way and blocked the blast.

"I said let him go, now! Or else!"

"Or else what, pipsqueak?" An anger flamed up in Ash's heart, and couldn't bear to see the rabbit harmed. He commanded Golem to do a roll attack. Rolling up in a ball, Golem rolled towards the giant monster. The Zox fired at Golem to try and stop it, but his lasers merely bounced off of his hide. Golem ran right into his legs, breaking them with his heavy rock body. The Zox fell to the ground as he heard his legs snap, and dropped the rabbit.

"Pikachu!" Pikachu let out a bolt of electricity, and zapped the monster. After his body jerked violently from the electricity, he didn't get up again.

"Thank you! Thank you!" The rabbit said, making small bows.

"Stay with me, I'll keep you safe." Ash smiled. He may have greatly harmed, possibly even killed, another being, but seeing the grateful eyes of the rabbit made him not regret his actions.

Once again, the battle did not last long. If anything, it was over even sooner. Dead and unconscious Zox littered the ground, and the rabbits were already gone to safety. Everyone got out of it alive, though Marina was pretty messed up. Zero had taken her to the side lines and laid her on the ground. When Zero saw that she would be okay, he was about to rejoin the battle, but saw that it was already ending, so instead stayed where he was.

"Thank you, Zero." Zero turned around and looked back at Marina. She was smiling warmly at him, and Zero couldn't help but smile back.

"Hey, we're a team. We help each other." When Zero looked into her blue eyes, he had a feeling that he hadn't had since he was back with the resistance. That's when he remembered about Ciel, and Zero looked away. Something was pulling at him in two different directions.

The team rested up inside the Nintendo 64 after their battle, and prepared for the next. There were eleven more camps, and it would take them a while. Since they had done two battles in a relative short amount of time, they took five hours this time to rest up before heading out again. However, while they waited, someone else was coming.

Just outside the orbit of Diamondous, the transport ship had arrived, and along with it was eighty CDs and two prototypes. The transport ship was long and narrow, like that of a giant train. The CDs surrounded it like a swarm of bees, ready to strike at the least provocation.

"Transport one to Diamondous, come in Diamondous. Diamondous, report!" The captain of the transport ship tried to contact central command, but no one was answering.

"Why aren't they answering? I know we're a day early to collect the jewels, but I'm sure they heard we were coming."

"Oh, no! Sir, we have a visual on the central command center!"

"What is it? Put it up on screen!" The main video screen in the bridge changed from a view of the planet to an aerial view of the command center, and everyone gasped at the sight. The base had been reduced to nothing but a pile of rubble.

"Blast! This has to be the 64! They must have attacked the planet. Sal, connect me to the fleet general!"

"Done, sir!"

"General sir, it appears that the warriors from dimension N has attacked the planet."

"What? This is bad. All right then, you stay here while we take care of the situation. It's a good thing that Sandfire was willing to lend us the last of the prototypes."

Inside the 64's dining room, Samus took a bowl of soup from the food replicator and sat down next to Link. Samus kept her suit on most of the time considering there's always danger, so eating was one of the few times she took it off. She wore the same tight black shirt and jeans as when she went to the Cornerian festival. Since she often wore her suit, it felt weird to her to wear anything that was loose.

As Samus sat next to Link, she looked around to make sure that they were alone. She then tilted her head to Link and whispered.

"Hey, Link."

"What?" Link was unsure why she was whispering, so he whispered too.

"I…have this weird feeling about Mario. Something about him doesn't seem right."

"You too?"

"You mean you feel the same way, Link?"

"Yes. There's just something different. I've noticed also that he doesn't take as much initiative as he did the last time we fought the Zox, but that could be because his memories of Peach's castle being destroyed was erased."

"That's possible, but I just can't shake this feeling."

"So then the problem is, what do we do now?" Samus then looked down at her suit, thinking for a moment at what to do.

"I think we should confront him. But don't tell this to anyone else; we don't need everyone getting suspicious."

"Right." Then, like déjà vu, Mario's voice spoke over a loudspeaker throughout the ship.

"Something's come up. Everyone come to the control room."

As everyone gathered inside the control room, Samus looked to Mario and asked what was going on. Mario then looked to D.K. who was sitting at the control panel for the sensors.

"A whole fleet of ships just showed up. They're just beyond the atmosphere right now." D.K. said. Jazz then walked up to the screen to see the red shapes of the ships on the sensor grid. Noticing one of the silhouettes, he gasped in surprise.

"That's a transport ship! But they shouldn't be here to pick up the jewels until tomorrow! And that's a much larger fleet it brought with it. Why would they come here in such a hurry?"

"Uh…we might have something to do with that." Fox said, suddenly realizing the reason.

"What? You had something to do with this?" Jazz asked.

"Well, we kind of ran into some new ships of the Zox and destroyed them. They must have taken extra precaution."

"Hey, the ships are moving!" D.K. shouted. His screen showed that the ships began to spread around the planet. It wouldn't be long till the enemy would find them.

"Looks like we've got another battle on our hands. Guess I might as well stay on the 64 since I don't have a working Arwing right now." Slippy said, slightly annoyed and depressed.

"All right everyone, get to your positions!" Link shouted. Samus ran to get her suit back on while the Starfox team went to their Arwings. Ash, Link, and Zero then went to their respective stations.

"So uh, if this is the ship that defeated the mother ship, a fleet shouldn't be too hard, should it?" Jazz asked, somewhat nervous at the amount of enemy ships.

"Don't worry about that. This is one powerful machine."

Mario steered, Link pressed buttons viewing their status, Zero waved his hands over a control panel, and Donkey Kong pressed buttons to view different areas of space. Seeing all the buttons and switches, Spaz couldn't help himself, and slowly walked towards one of the control panels while looking in awe.

Silently, Spaz stepped up behind Mario, reached out his hand, and pressed the big shiny button that was calling to him. As soon as he pressed it, the Nintendo 64 inverted itself, and the outside view was now upside down. Since the hover pads were at the bottom of the ship, the 64 began falling to the ground.

If Mario didn't do something fast, they would crash into the surface, so he jerked the steering control to the left, and flipped the ship back right-side up, and stopped the 64 from falling. When all was calm, Mario gave an angry glare at Spaz, who now cowered in fear.

"Spaz! I'm really sorry, Mario. I should take him away from the controls." Jazz said. He took Spaz by the shoulder and led him out of the room.

"Hey, Mario, what's the big idea, turning the ship upside-down while we're leaving the bay like that?" Fox asked through the communication link. Fox and the others were outside in their Arwings.

"Sorry, it was an accident. Hey Samus, how's your ship looking?"

"The spider bots have fully repaired it. I'll be joining you outside."

"Good. I guess we fight now." Link then activated the transformation of the ship into robot mode.

angelfire.c om/music6/blackphantom/Megas.m p3 (Sorry, just had to do it!)

The controller-like front ends of the ship turned around to form the legs and arms of the ship, and the 64 reformed itself into its robot form. Hovering in the air by the jets in the back, it powered up and shot upwards into space.

"Hey, how come we didn't get flipped around in our seats back there? I didn't feel a thing when we went upside down." Link asked.

"That's because of the artificial gravity." Slippy said. "Just as we stay on the floor when in space, it also keeps us on the floor on a planet, just in case we ended up in a situation like that."

"There's three CDs coming!" D.K. said. Zero then smirked.

"Piece of cake." Two CDs were coming in front and one behind. The 64 held out its hands, the palms facing the two CDs. The hands began charging, and then shot out two large lasers. They collided with the CDs with a powerful impact, exploding them both. They then turned around to face the other one, charged up a laser in the right palm, and destroyed it with ease.

"Looks like they've caught notice of us now. All ships are converging on our position." A swarm of CDs came over the horizon and flew towards the 64 with guns firing. The 64 placed both its hands in as if holding an invisible object, and then began forming a ball of energy between them. A multitude of lasers was now impacting with the ship, but the 64 kept charging up its attack. It moved its hands apart as it grew bigger, and once it grew to a hundred feet in diameter, they punched it, exploding into countless energy projectiles, all spreading out towards the enemy swarm. The sheer amount of energy balls made it impossible to avoid, and they all came crashing into the enemy. CD after CD exploded as they came in contact, and they sky was lit with fire.

After it was done, a few CDs that were in the back lines managed to survive and continued to fire at them. As they looked around, they could see that CDs were coming towards them from all directions, so Mario flew directly away the planet, and the CDs followed, all converging at the same point. As they flew away from the planet and the enemy, Zero then began charging up another of the same attack, but then Link realized something.

"Wait, we can't do that! The lasers that miss the CDs will end up hitting the planet!" Mario thought it over, and came up with a different plan of attack.

"Link, how's our armor holding?"

"Eighty percent."

"Yeah, that'll do." The 64 then stopped moving away, and instead reversed the direction of the jets. Set at top speed, the jets blasted with stronger power, jetting out a larger stream of fire. Now, they were moving at full speed towards the enemy, as well as the planet. The 64 was moving with its right shoulder faced towards the enemy while it continued to hold the charged energy ball.

As they came within firing distance, the enemy fired at them all at once, and a rain of lasers impacted the 64. Their armor began to drop quite radically, going from eighty to seventy percent in just five seconds. It only took six seconds for them to run into the enemy though; they ignored the ships and just kept moving on. One CD was in the way, but it was shredded to pieces as the 64 went right through it with amazing speed.

The heroes were now behind the CDs, and moving through the atmosphere. The 64 raised its hands above its head holding the charged energy ball. The ball exploded, and released its countless projectiles. They were moving towards the ground too fast for any normal machine, and landed on the ground with its feet. The momentum, though, kept the Nintendo 64 moving, and had to also put its hands on the ground to stop the main body from crashing into the ground.

The 64 took minimal damage from the landing, but they had caused a three-thousand foot crater. Shockwaves caused the ground to quake, making many of the underground caves to crumble. As they looked to the sky, they saw a cloud of fire where the CDs were. Only ten remained now.

"Uh oh. We've got bigger problems. There's two more of those new machines."

"Oh, man. Starfox, Samus, can you guys take those things while we finish off the last of the CDs?"

"Gee, thanks." Falco said in exaggeration. Fox was a little more reasonable though.

"Oh, come on. It's probably the best choice." Out in the distance, they could see the prototypes approaching fast. They zoomed through space faster than their Arwings could, making them all the more tense. The three Arwings flew to meet the two prototypes, and as soon as they were within firing range, both forces opened fire. As laser fire came towards both forces, they all broke their direct flight path, and entered a battle frenzy.

As soon as Krystal broke away from the lasers, she saw that one of the Zox had come up from behind and began firing. She was hit twice from the surprise, but then did a summersault to get behind him. Krystal was shocked, though, as the Zox ship had done the exact same maneuver at the same time she did, and thus the prototype was still behind her. Her rear was hit once more, so she tried to turn to the left as hard as she could, but then found the enemy firing at her front as it flew past her. She received another hit, and now her armor was already reduced to half of what it was.

The Zox pilot flew past Krystal as she flew past him, and went on to attack the Arwing that was being piloted by Falco, who was already being fired at by the Zox's comrade. Falco was now being shot at by two ships, and found his armor to be lowering drastically. When his right wing broke from one of the blasts, he began to wonder if he would make it out of this alive.

"Lay off him!" Fox shouted. He flew his ship adjacent to the two ships and pressed the fire button as rapidly as he could. Fox managed to lay a good blow to the side of one of the ships, and caused it to brake its course. Krystal, likewise, had flown in the opposite direction of Fox and fired at the second ship, also forcing it to brake its course.

"Again I have to have my butt saved."

"Would you rather die?" Falco merely sighed at Krystal's comment.

"Listen up everyone, I have an idea. Let's have one of us act as bait for one of the Zox, then the other two can gang up on the enemy. Since I'm the least damaged, I think I should go."

"Sounds like a plan. Just don't get yourself killed."

"Don't worry, Krystal." Fox then flew away from Falco and Krystal, and sure enough, one of the prototypes took the bait. The other one, though, tried to finish off Falco. Falco and Krystal used their boosters to try to escape and head after the other ship, but it kept close tabs on them. Krystal and Falco flew in chaotic fashions to avoid the fire from behind while chasing after the other ship.

"Uh, guys, you can hurry up you know."

"We're coming, Fox!" The two Arwings caught up with Fox and the Zox and fired simultaneously. The prototype took a good hit in the rear and broke off its attack on Fox, but now Krystal and Falco were being shot at by two ships, and both of them were already in bad shape.

"Mario, we're in trouble! Can you help us?"

"I'm sorry guys, we're already dealing with the CDs." Krystal was hit in the rear by more laser blasts, and was nearing destruction.

"Oh no, I can't shake him!" Then, out of the blue, a missile collided with the prototype, erupting it into a cloud of fire.

"I heard you could use some help." Samus said.

"Oh, thanks! You saved my life!"

"All right, one more to go!" The four ships zeroed in on the last prototype and opened fire, but then, to their astonishment, the Zox ship activated one of its abilities.

There were still bugs in this attack's programming, so the other pilots had been reluctant to use it, but with situations dire, he had to use it. Blue energy began to glow around the front of the triangular ship forming a barrier, and the two thrusters at the back of the ship glowed brightly white. As the lasers collided with the blue energy around the ship, they bounced off of it, not harming the ship the least. What happened next was all too quick, and they barely saw what happened until it was all over.

The prototype launched forward towards the group in a lightning dash. The blue energy shield that formed at the end of the ship provided protection, as well as extra strength for ramming, as it collided with Fox's ship. Combined with the speed and strength of the prototype, the attack was enough to pierce any ship, even the armor of the Nintendo 64.

Unfortunately for the Zox, the bugs had affected the targeting system, and instead of going right through Fox, it grazed the right half of the Arwing. Though he missed Fox, he had destroyed the Arwing. The cockpit was a mere inch from being hit, and a tube leading to the engine had been severed. Fuel then gushed out from a tank and hit the flames of the thrusters, and ignited.

From Fox's perspective, all he saw was the enemy disappear from sight at the same time his ship was jerked around by something deafening to the ear, and a second later, an explosion knocked him unconscious.

When Fox's Arwing had exploded, Krystal looked to see what it was, and her eyes widened in shock as she saw Fox's body blown away from the Arwing and drift into space. Her heart wanted to scream out to Fox, but her face was too frozen with fear to say a word.

Because everyone was too fixated on Fox's ill fate, they didn't notice the Great Fox approach and fire its powerful dual laser canons at the prototype that came to a stop just behind the space fighters. With the Zox's ship having come to a stop from a power drain, it wasn't able to avoid the blast, and was destroyed by only one shot.

"Assistance has arrived." ROB said in his monotone voice. As soon as Krystal heard ROB, she snapped back into her right frame of mind.

"ROB, quick, transport Fox on board!" Krystal's voice was in panic. As she looked at Fox's body float through space, it started to glow white, and then vanish as it was sent to the Great Fox. The remaining Starfox team then went back into the Great Fox.

Falco and Krystal ran down the corridor that led out of the docking bay as fast as their legs could move. They made it to the medical bay only to see that their anxiety could not be calmed. Fox laid on a gurney, his armor burnt and torn, with his fur that wasn't protected by his armor burned from the explosion, with patches of fur even missing. Frost covered his body from the heatless environment of outer space. Though it was awful to see Fox like this, it was rather odd to see him burned and frozen at the same time. His right leg and right arm were also bent and broken, and he wasn't breathing. ROB was placing several tubes and wires to help heal him, one of them being an oxygen mask.

"ROB, tell me he'll live!"

"I can not. Besides from severe bodily damage, he is not breathing and his pulse is dangerously low." ROB was not designed to show emotion, even though his leader was dying.

"Fox…." For some reason, Falco was greatly upset about Fox hanging for his life. After all, he only met Fox recently after he took the form of Falco. His old self tried to tell him that it was his mission to stop the warriors from dimension N, but the memories of Falco ran deep inside him. He could see himself fighting alongside Fox, he could see the memories of them laughing together. Falco and Fox were great friends, and these feelings couldn't help but surface.

Krystal started to brake down and cry, and buried her head in Fox's nonmoving chest. Fox had freed her from an imprisonment a few years back on Sauria, and then joined the Starfox team shortly after that. She had spent a great deal of time with him, and had grown quite fond of him. She loved Fox, but never openly said it, and now her chance was slipping away.

"Oh, Fox, I'm sorry. I should have told you. I love you Fox, I love you! Don't die on me! You can't die!" She had now become hysterical. Tears streaked down her face and onto Fox, damping both of their fur. She could feel his heart beat slow down, and could sense that his life force was fading. Her loved one was leaving her, never to have that love fulfilled.

She was about to give up hope, but heroes who have a strong will for justice could not let their bodies fail until justice was served. Krystal's tears began to slow as she felt Fox's chest rise. It was slow at first, but after a few minutes, Fox regained normal breathing. Krystal began to calm down as Falco could only watch, his feelings and duty keeping him frozen in a paradox.

A few minutes later, Fox's eyes twitched, and he opened them to see his friends at his side. He looked at the blue furred vixen, and saw that she was smiling, even though tears were rolling down her cheeks. Fox smiled at her, and in his weakened state, spoke to her.

"I love you too, Krystal." Fox then closed his eyes and fell back to sleep. Krystal was shocked that Fox could have heard her, but some people say that it's possible for people who are unconscious to hear those around them. Perhaps it was even Krystal's words that caused Fox to not accept death quite yet.

The Zox captain of the transport ship looked at the view screen at the front of the bridge, watching nervously as his protection fleet was quickly diminishing by their enemy. The captain was getting too nervous, and shouted to one of the crew members.

"Patch me through to the general!" The screen switched to that of the general's bridge. "General, the outcome of this battle is looking painfully obvious! Please tell me you plan on retreating!"

"Please tell me you're not considering that!" The general barked back with contempt. "This is our main threat to the empire! We must deal any kind of damage we can do! Besides, the prototypes are faring well." As the general had said that, one of the crew members outside of the camera's view said something, but was barely audible on the captain's speakers. When the crew member had said it, the general's eyes widened in shock.

"Sir, is everything okay?"

"Y-yes! Just fine!" The general was trying hold back his sudden worry, but didn't do very well at it. "End the communica…." As the general told someone under his command to end the link, there was a sudden flash, and the screen went to that of a fuzzy gray.

"What happened?"

"We lost contact with the general." Upon further investigation, the Zox became even more worried. "Sir, his ship is gone!" Their forces were dwindling, and since they were just a transport ship, they would soon be left to the hands of the enemy. The captain sat in his chair, scrambling through his mind at what to do. He was ordered to stay, and if he ran away, he could be in great jeopardy with the military, but if he stayed, he'd probably die. He sat there, tossing between the idea of humiliation or death. A few minutes had passed as they sat there, and when he came to the decision of humiliation over death, it was too late.

"Sir, I've lost contact with all ships!" The captain was now thoroughly panicked.

"Quick! Activate the dimensional drive!" Before they did, however, something on the view screen showed up. It was viewing what was in front of them, and suddenly, within just a few feet of them, the head of the 64 came up from the bottom. Though there was no face to the head, it seemed to look at them condescendingly. The monitor then switched to the view of several different species inside the 64, one of them being a green rabbit looking directly at them.

"Considering that you're now at our mercy, I don't suppose you'll do anything rash, now will you?" The rabbit asked. The captain had no choice but to comply.

"Of course!"

"Now, you were sent here to pick up our jewels, right? Well, you're still going to go down there, but you're not going for a bunch of rocks, see? You're going to go down there and pick every single one of your Zox buddies, and go packing home, never to return to Diamondous again. You got that?"

"Y-yes! Sure!"

"Good."


	8. Chapter 4: Confession

A/N: No replies on the last section and only one on the section before that? Sigh Oh well, here's the next.

* * *

**Chapter 4**

**Confession**

Samus went on board the transport ship to make sure that the Zox followed instructions, and while they did that, Jazz and Spaz went back to the caves to tell the rabbits the news. Now that Diamondous was free, there was no longer any reason for the rabbits to stay hidden. No longer did they have to fear the heel of the Zox slave drivers, no longer did they have to work to death at tearing their planet apart.

While Jazz and Spaz left, the Nintendo 64 was in ship mode resting on the surface. During this time Falco and Krystal contacted them to inform them what happened.

"Wow, I'm so sorry. I'm glad to hear that he'll be okay though." Mario said.

"Yeah, but we're in serious trouble. We only have two Arwings now! And if more of those ships come and use that attack on the 64, you guys won't be in a very good condition." Falco said, upset at the whole situation.

"Well, we're holding together all right for now. As long as we keep on our toes we should stay alive." Zero said. "You said that it took about ten seconds for the ship to charge before attacking, right?"

"About so."

"Well, as long as we keep an eye on them, we should be able to avoid the attacks."

"I hope you're right. Man, Peppy won't believe it when he hears about what happened to Fox."

"Huh? Isn't he there with you?"

"Oh? Didn't we tell you? He's at Corneria."

"No, you didn't tell us that."

"Well, old age has gotten to him. One day, during a mission, it almost cost us our lives. He couldn't bare to have that happen again, so he insisted he retire to a quiet home on Corneria." As they spoke, Marina came walking into the room. She had several bandages on her face and was putting her hand against the wall for support as she tried to walk on her injured legs. Zero took notice of her and became concerned for her health.

"Marina? You should be resting."

"Did I hear that Jazz left to tell the others in the cave that the battle is over?"

"Yes, why?"

"Theo is still there. I don't want him to get left behind or…."

"Don't worry, I'll go get him." Link said as he stood up. He then looked to Mario. "Will you accompany me, Mario?"

"Uh…yeah, sure." Mario thought it odd that Link wanted him to come also, but figured he should comply.

Mario and Link walked towards the caves, but once they were out of sight of the 64, Link started to talk to Mario.

"Mario, have you regained some more of your memory about the war with the Zox?"

"Huh? Well, some. Just a few pieces here and there, but nothing that really tells me much. Why?"

"Well, it's just that you seemed different then."

"Different? How?" Mario's voice showed a slight uneasiness. It sounded like Link was starting to see through his charade.

"You seemed more of a leader back then. You took charge of the team at times, showing confidence in yourself. You seem more of a follower now, doubting yourself at times. I wonder if it is because you didn't experience for yourself the destruction that the Zox caused, but I'm not sure." This was all Mario needed to hear. His security was being compromised. Mario put his finger up to his right ear while Link walked to his left.

"Yes, what is it?" Sandfire said inside his mind. Mario didn't say anything.

"Mario? Something wrong? Why are you holding your finger up to your ear?" Link asked, finding Mario's behavior odd.

"Huh? Just scratching it." Mario moved his finger around a bit. Sandfire took this as a hint.

"I see, you must be alone with him then. Very well, I'll be there shortly." Mario and Link continued to walk without saying any more. Link was now more unsure about Mario then ever, but still couldn't tell what it was. A few minutes passed, and the silence was becoming uncomfortable. Link was hoping the silence would be broken, but he didn't want it to be broken the way it was.

Out of seemingly nowhere, a ring of yellow energy rocketed towards Link and collided with his back. Link fell to the ground and tried to stand up, but found that the energy ring was looped around his chest, keeping his hands strapped to his sides. He kicked his feet up and righted himself, standing up, but another ring shot at his legs, and locked his legs together. Link was now on the ground again, limited only to the movements of a worm. Link looked to Mario for help, but saw him just stand there looking at the ground depressed. Seconds later he was surrounded by Zox soldiers.

"So this is it! You've sided with the Zox! How could you Mario?" Mario only looked away in shame. One of the soldiers then gave him a good thwack on the head, knocking Link unconscious. A figure then approached clapping his hands.

"Excellent job, Mario. Link was one of the more stronger ones, and now with him at our side, things should move even better. I was quite upset to hear that we lost Diamondous; we've lost a lot of wealth from this. But now that we have Link, it doesn't seem quite as big of a loss, especially when in the long run, this will give us the power of the Nintendo 64." Sandfire smiled at his prize. Another one of Mario's people then came up to Link, placed his hands on his head, and changed his body to the shape of Link. Since Link was much taller than the small gray creature, the clothes he wore ripped apart when he grew to Link's height, and now stood naked.

One of Zox then tossed a pair of identical green clothes to the new Link, and he quickly put them on. Another Zox then stripped Link of his gear, and handed it to the copy. The copy Link placed on the quiver on his back and the scabbard at his side. A Zox then handed Link's sword, and the copy admired its steel blade that glinted in the sunlight. Link didn't carry the true master sword since it had to be kept inside the Temple of Time to keep Ganondorf sealed away, but Link had a blade made that was identical to the legendary blade, only that it didn't have the power of evil's bane. He sheathed the sword, and was now identical to Link. A Zox then picked up the original Link and hauled him away to be imprisoned with his friends.

"Well, till we meet again."

"Sandfire, wait, I may have a problem."

"And what is that?" Sandfire asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I believe that Samus may be catching on to me, and it would be difficult to replace her."

"Yes, I see. In order to have one of you take her place, you'll need to come in contact with her head, and in order to do that we'll have to remove her armor, but in order to do that, we'll have to have her immobilized, but in order to do that, we'll have to remove her armor. Quite a pickle. And the same would go for Zero, since you certainly can't change your body into metal. Well, when the numbers reduce to just them, it shouldn't be too hard to overcome them."

"Yes, I see."

"Well, go on then." As the Zox walked away, Link looked to Mario.

"So, you're the first one, right?"

"Yeah."

"And you've been fulfilling your mission, correct?"

"Yes. What is it?"

"You've been hindering them, yet they have still managed to overthrow Zox rule on two planets, and Diamondous was a great source of wealth to them. I saw that Sandfire was quite steamed when he heard that he lost this planet." The person who took the shape of Link seemed to be a very calm and calculating man, as it was showing through even with his new mindset.

"So what you're saying is…these people from dimension N could defeat the Zox?"

"I hate to admit it, but yes." Mario was now deeply torn. These people have indeed shown more than once that they have the power to overthrow the Zox, yet if he betrayed Sandfire, his home world would no doubt be destroyed. To fight the Zox and end their tyranny and risk his kind's destruction, or to help the Zox and ensure his people's survival? Countless lives were in the balance of his decision.

As these events occurred, though, he didn't realize that his decision was already being decided for him. Just beyond them behind a hill, Jazz caught sight of the whole thing.

"What's going on here? Why is Mario helping the Zox?" Jazz said quietly while hiding behind the hill. Spaz and Theo were with him, along with the other rabbits that were hiding in the caves. They were coming back to the 64, but saw the Zox when they were coming.

"I don't know. Mario was quite eager to fight the Zox when I first met him." Theo said, also confused at what was happening. "There's no way someone would switch sides so willingly."

"Look, when everything is clear, you guys go on like nothing happened. I'm going to go on ahead to warn the others." Jazz said. He then snuck around to the side and starting running. Making sure he was too far to be seen, he started running at full speed to the Nintendo 64. Time was of the essence; their very lives could be in danger.

"An eel! Worm? Crazy insane worm!" Sonic shouted, but Luigi kept shaking his head to say no. He was holding his arms and legs together making him look like a worm, but he was sitting on his knees and moving his upper body around while opening and closing his mouth real wide. At times he would lunge his body forward while taking bites out of the air, but kept his knees on the same spot. Since sitting in a prison cell was quite boring, they had to play games from time to time to keep them from boredom.

"A worm? It's supposed to be a monster!" Luigi then put his hand up and showed to fingers. "Two words?" Luigi then nodded his head in agreement.

"A piranha plant!" Mario said, but Luigi again shook his head. Luigi pretended again to lunge at Mario while staying in the same place and while biting.

"Oh! A chain chomp!" D.K. shouted. Luigi then stood up.

"Yeah! About time you got it!"

"A chain chomp? Never heard of that." The Zox guard said.

"It's a monster native to our land. Pretty much a ball with a mouth that is chained to something."

"That sounds odd." Their jolly of playing quickly turned to solemnity when Link was carried into the room and tossed into the cell to the left of Mario. Once he came to and stared at everyone in amazement, it all came together.

"So that's what it is! Darn, I knew something was wrong, but I didn't expect this!"

"So Link, what news do your bring of the outside world? How far has our team gotten?" Falco asked causally. Link took a look around him, seeing the energy barrier in front of him, the solid metal walls of his cell, and seeing that he had been completely stripped of all his items, only retaining his clothes. It didn't look like there was any way out of it, so he sat down on the cold floor, sighed, and informed them on what has happened so far.

Zero and D.K. sat lazily at their stations in the control room, resting in their chairs. Ash was also there, but was playing with Pikachu, but they all quickly looked at Jazz when he rushed into the room. Jazz came to a sudden stop, bending over and panting.

"Jazz? Is something wrong? Where's everyone else?"

"You guys! You have to…listen to me!" Jazz had to stop from talking from time to time to catch his breath. Someone with such speed as his would have high endurance, but he was running as fast as he possibly could. That and he was quite worried. "Mario is working for…the Zox!"

"What are you talking about?" Ash yelled in defiance. "Mario is a good friend! You better have a good reason for this!"

"I saw it for myself! He was talking to the Zox, and even more, they've captured Link! And some guy touched him and took the form of Link! An exact copy!" As Donkey Kong heard this, he began to sweat heavily. Jazz had found out their secret, and now it would only be a matter of time till he was discovered. But then again, if he played his cards right, he might be able to say that he's the true Donkey Kong. Zero then saw the big picture.

"You mean…the Zox are copying us? Then perhaps that means the Mario that has been with us isn't even the original. Wait, it makes sense now! Mario was captured, but the Mario returned to us was a fake! Quick, gather everyone here! We have an imposter to confront."

After about ten minutes, Mario, Link, Theo and Spaz walked up the ramp and into the 64, and went to the control room. Something didn't feel right as he walked in, as the whole team was there, waiting it seemed. They were either standing around or sitting in the chairs, but as soon as Mario and Link walked in, they all turned their attention to them; something was definitely wrong. Everyone began to approach him, and feeling uneasy, he turned around to look at the exit, but found that D.K. was now standing at the door, blocking his way out. He looked to the second door, but Zero stood there, blocking it as well. Mario's heart began to beat faster.

"Well, uh, we went to the caves and got Theo, but, Jazz was gone." Mario then saw that Jazz and was there as well. "But I guess we missed him on the way there. The, uh, other rabbits went to their old homes." Samus then walked up to him with her arms folded.

"So, Mario, what are you _really_ doing here? Or is that even your real name?" Mario began to sweat; the jig was up. His and his people's lives were in jeopardy.

"I…I…." Everyone was closing in on him with scornful looks on their faces; there was no way out of it. "I'm sorry, all right? I'm sorry! I had to do it! Please, I'm sorry!" Mario fell to his knees, has hands resting on the floor as his head pointed to the ground; he couldn't bear to look at them in the face. Tears began to seep from his closed eyes.

"Why don't you tell us who you are before we think about forgiveness?" Samus asked, interrogating the frightened man. Mario sat there for about a minute before saying anything, but then he started to calm down a little bit as he told his story.

"My…real name is Alma, and I'm a Zoramite from the planet Mantai. I was…under orders by Sandfire…to replace you." Alma's voice cracked at times while talking through his shaky voice. Link merely stood there, not showing any particular emotion.

"Sandfire?"

"The new War Master. He took Karlnak's position shortly after he died."

"So, if you've come to 'replace' us, then where are the real people?"

"They're held prisoner by Sandfire. He doesn't intend to do anything with them until he captures all of you."

"Okay, then tell me this: if you're a shape shifter, how come my scan of you back at the Mushroom Kingdom didn't detect anything? It should have shown unstable DNA."

"Because I'm not a shape shifter. My people have developed the ability to transform into other people by coming in contact with their minds. This transformation doesn't merely make us like the person, we _become_ the person. Our entire body is changed to match the exactness of the person we copy, including their memories. I have every single memory of Mario. The only thing we retain of our former selves is that of our former memories." Alma then made a small smile. "It's a strange feeling, really. I remember that five years ago I saw my best friend die, but at the same time, I remember defeating Bowser."

"So that whole amnesia thing was just a ploy then, huh?" Ash asked.

"Yes. It was so you would accept me without raising suspicion. All part of Sandfire's plan." As Samus thought about the whole thing, a sudden, horrible thought, crossed her mind.

"Wait a minute…if you're here to replace us, then…" Samus looked around at her team, unsure of who was her friends. "just how many of you are there?"

"Including me, four." Alma said. Samus already knew that Link was one, so that meant there were two others.

"Who are they? And you better give me the right answer!" Alma glanced at the other two, and D.K. gave him an angry look, one that would say _I'm going to kill you if you tell_; Alma no longer cared though.

"Falco and D.K." Everyone looked at the two who stood amongst them, and D.K. shouted in defense.

"What? What do you mean _me_? I'm the real Donkey Kong!"

"And just how can we take your word?"

"Can you just take his? He's been lying to us from the start! Since he can't get out of this, he's probably trying to make us turn on each other!"

"Perhaps you can't take his, but you can take mine." Falco said as he stepped up to the others. "I'm one of the four." He spoke in a very sober tone.

"What? But…if you're one too, then you're probably also trying to get me framed! I'm telling ya, I'm the real Donkey Kong!"

"Oh lay off it already, Jarom!" Alma said in an irritated tone. Everyone then looked at D.K., their minds already decided. Since it was hopeless to try any longer, D.K. decided to drop the act.

"You've ruined everything, Alma! You know that, right? This whole mission is a failure now!"

"Well, if you've all been discovered now, then why don't you show us your true forms?" Once Samus asked that, the four imposters looked greatly hurt. It was as if she had asked a very sensitive question.

"We can't."

"What? Why not?"

"Because it's permanent. Since our bodies have transformed into something other than a Zoramite, we can no longer use that power. Our powers are now that of the ones we copied."

"You mean you were willing to undergo a permanent transformation? Why?" Jarom, the fake Donkey Kong, then snapped.

"It was to save our planet!"

"Save your planet? Just what do you mean?" Samus asked. Alma then sighed heavily and explained.

"Sandfire promised he would free us. You see, ten years ago, the Zox conquered our planet, Mantai. And our years are much longer than Nintendo's for your information. Once they discovered of our power, they put us to their work like tools. Since we can perfectly take identities, they use us to infiltrate places and take information, usually planets before they strike them." Alma then started to sob again. "Our powers were never meant to be used like this. The only times we would use it is when an important person who has a task to fulfill is on the verge of dying, so that the task can still be carried out." An anger then started to show from Alma's voice.

"In return for our service to the empire, they hold us prisoners in our own land, giving us just enough food and supplies to keep us alive. Our shelters are in horrible conditions too, and Mantai is a particularly cold planet! And once a person has transformed, they're either simply disposed of or, if they've become someone strong, put into the army. None of us like the idea of serving the Zox, but we're a weak people. We live in a horrible state, most wishing they would just die already. So you see, when Sandfire approached us and said that if we did this one particular mission, he would leave our planet and let us be. I'm not quite sure why he bothered to say that though since he already had us under his thumb." Alma shut his eyes tightly as he began to sob again.

"You don't know what it's like. The Zox are too powerful and too vast to ever consider overthrowing their power. Everyone who knows them live in fear, not knowing whether they'll be put to their service or simply executed, and the later often sounds better compared to what the Zox will do to you to appease their own wants! Once I took Mario's body and memories, I knew that you were powerful, and even considered telling you the truth, but if I were to tell you, Sandfire would be sure to finish off my people for my treachery. You can't comprehend what forces lie ahead, no one can! If they were ever to assemble all of their ships that lie in all the scattered galaxies across the dimensions, no force, not even ten Nintendo 64s, could stand up to it! They could probably destroy an entire galaxy with one blow!"

Once Alma began to calm down a little, he noticed that no one was saying anything. As he opened his eyes and looked at the others, he saw that they were now the ones looking away. It seemed that his little speech was more effective than he thought. It seemed that they were all saddened by his tale, and were even feeling compassion.

"I…didn't know that." Samus said in a saddened voice. Even her, one of the stern ones, had been broken.

"I guess I can see now why you did it, but forgiveness isn't just about feeling sorry, it's also about making amends." Ash said, walking towards Alma. The others were a little surprised by his statement, as it seemed to be a little wiser beyond his age. Then again, he had gone through a lot, and everyone grows up at some point in time.

"I…." Alma was about to say something, but was unsure of what to say.

"Do you regret what you did? Are you sorry that what you did was wrong, or are you sorry that you were caught?" Ash asked.

"I know it was wrong to lie to you. I do regret it. Maybe if I said something sooner…."

"Will you never do it again?" Ash again cut him off, knowing already how Alma felt.

"What? Of course not. There's no reason to."

"Well then, there's just one more thing to ask:" Ash then knelt down to Alma and looked him in the eye. "What are you going to do about it?" It all made sense. Alma stopped his pouting, stood up, wiped his tear-streaked face, and started to regain himself. He looked at the others, they looking at him. They were beginning to trust him now, he could see it in their eyes. He knew what had to be done, and he knew that they would back him up. He raised his head high, and spoke in a determined voice.

"I'm going to stop him. I'm going stop the mad man Sandfire." An anger then flared in his eyes. "I'll stop his obsession with conquering the dimensions and avenge my people for their lives of misery, even if I have to die doing it." Everyone then smiled.

"Well then, why not we strike at the heart?" Link said, finally saying something. He had been observing the whole thing, keeping his thoughts to himself, and now that it was an opportune moment to speak, he spoke with clear wisdom.

"You mean hit the home planet?" Alma asked. "But Compet is heavily guarded! Shouldn't we try to weaken their forces instead?"

"Not if we want to end this war."

"Why not? If you know where they are, then lets strike!" Jazz said.

"You don't understand. You guys from dimension N, you managed to defeat the mother ship, but just barely. The invasion force that came to dimension N was small fry. They've gotten confident in their strength, and only send a minimal amount to conquer worlds. What kind of force do you think would be at their home planet?" Alma asked.

"Then why not try dimension X?" Alma gasped at Enos's, the fake Link, suggestion.

"What? Tell me, Enos, what could we possibly do with dimension X?"

"Well, this is an ancient ship built by an ancient, unknown people, correct?"

"Yes. What's your point?"

"Well, since it is so unique, it could be possible that we could enter."

"What are you guys talking about?" Marina asked. She was still weak from her fight, but she was well enough to stand. Alma then unfolded another mystery to them.

"It's an alternate dimension that no one has been able to enter. When you open a portal to it, everything goes as normal, but when you try to enter it, this bright light comes gushing out from it like a geyser, pushing any ship trying to enter it away. Then the portal closes on its own, and just before it's completely shut, an ominous voice says, 'only our chosen may enter.' There are as many ideas as to what lies in that dimension as there are people that have tried to enter it."

"Wow, that sounds bizarre. So, you think we can go in it?" Zero asked. Enos then nodded his head.

"With this unique ship, it might be possible. Perhaps the people that block the entrance are the ones who built this ship. It's a long shot, but I don't see the harm in trying. Perhaps we could find a power that will help us."

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Ash said, excited at another adventure.

"Jazz, would like to come with us?" Samus asked.

"Really? You mean you want me to come with to kick the Zox empire in the rear? Why wouldn't I want to come? Sure!"

"Spaz come to! Spaz come to!"

"No Spaz, you should stay here. Someone needs to watch over Diamondous while I'm gone."

"Aww, but I'll miss you!"

"Come on, bro, you can do it! Watch over Eva for me, will ya?"

"Yeah, I'll watch!"

"Good. Come on, I should go tell her good bye."

"You do realize this is a crazy idea, don't you? I mean, actually trying to defeat the Zox? It's madness!" Jarom said.

"Maybe, but it's about time someone did." Mario said. Falco, who's real name was Omni, was on the Great Fox speaking through the communication channel.

"So we either die as heroes who defeated the Zox, or fools who tried to oppose their power, eh? Normally I'd say we'd die as fools, but these thoughts I have from Falco are rather cocky. Heh, let's do it then. If we die, then we die trying!" For once in a long time, the four Zoramites smiled, happy that there might actually be a chance at liberation.


	9. Chapter 5: 64 to the 3rd Power Part 1

Chapter 5

Sixty-Four to the Third Power

"Enos, status?"

"All systems functioning at 100 percent, Alma."

"Good. Jarom, there's no sign of the Zox returning to Diamondous, is there?"

"No Zox ships have entered the area since the transport took the last of them away."

"Good, let's hope it stays that way. Well then, is everyone ready?" Everyone inside the 64 nodded their heads.

"Great. Starfox, are you ready?" The view screen switched to show Omni, the Falco Zoramite, and Krystal on the Great Fox.

"Yes, we're all ready to go."

"I guess everything is set then. Ash, open a portal to dimension X. Let's see if we can enter."

"Yes, sir!" Ash said teasingly. Alma chuckled slightly, realizing how he had taken more charge of the mission now.

With them in open space, Ash set the coordinates, and four electricity-like bolts surged from the points of the Nintendo 64 and met at a single point 200 feet ahead of them. The bolts gradually pulled apart, opening a black vortex in the middle of space. Once it reached the needed size, the bolts vanished, and the portal sustained itself.

Alma moved the ship into the portal slowly, making sure to be cautious. They came within a hundred feet, and still nothing opposed them. They continued, and the tip of the 64 entered the portal; no geyser of light was pushing them back. Some of them crossed their fingers as they continued, and when the ancient ship had fully entered the portal, they were not opposed. While Samus remained on board the 64, the Great Fox followed behind, and they too were accepted.

They traveled down the black tunnel, the fuzzy, swirling blackness of the tunnel walls flying past them. A few seconds later, they passed the entrance phase of the dimensional tunnel and traveled down the second part, the tunnel walls now being a solid black with streaks of multiple colors.

Once they began to reach the end of the tunnel though, there was something different. When traveling from one alternate dimension to another, instead of using a slip portal, the end of the second phase would be the exit point, where you would see what's on the other side, which was usually the blackness of space, but instead of seeing the darkness, they saw a bright light. The ship began to rumble, signifying that they were nearing the exit, and as they neared the exit, the light became so bright that they had to cover their eyes. The ship shook harder, and the bright light seemed to even pierce the hands that covered their eyes. When the 64 suddenly stopped shaking, they knew they were out of the portal and inside the other dimension, but they still had their eyes closed. The light began to fade as their eyes adjusted slightly, and once they opened their eyes to look at the view screen, they gasped at what they saw.

(Place a percent sign and 20 before and after the word of)

archivesdojo.free.fr/Temple20of20Time.M P3

Nothing. Nothing but white. It seemed like an inverted outer space, except there were no stars. They gasped at the sight, too stunned for words. Everywhere they looked it was the same. It was like being in the purest, whitest room you could be in that had no doors or windows, except when you look out there, there was no sign of a wall, but everything just stretched out to infinity. Samus tried to look for the source of this light, but couldn't find any. It seemed to defy reality.

"So…this is it? What can we find here?" A voice suddenly answered Zero's question.

"The answers to everything." The voice seemed to come from all around them, not belonging to any particular place. Even stranger, it was not one voice, but three, all speaking at once in a unified voice. Two men and one woman.

"What? Who are you? Where are you?"

"We are here. We are the creators." The voice was a soothing one, like cool water. It was a beautiful voice.

"The creators? Do you mean…you're the ones who created the Nintendo 64?"

"And much more. We have been waiting you, our chosen ones, to come."

"Why? And what do you mean by chosen?" Samus asked.

"After the creation of the worlds, the Nintendo 64 was built to protect Nintendo and those around it. It was kept hidden and protected to keep it from evil, but placed where you would later find it. For you see, we can see the patterns of all existence, and know the ties that bound one another."

"You can see the ties? What do you mean?" Theo asked.

"It is a common knowledge that the dimensions are connected, like layers, but what is not known is that they have connections to one another. What happens in one dimension affects what happens in another. There is one dimension in particular that has many ties with Dimension N and several others. This one dimension contains so many ties that you can not begin to comprehend the effects it has on your lives. It is because of this dimension that we have foreseen the rise of the Zox, and your very lives as well. This is why you are the chosen ones. The ones that will lead the dimensions to peace."

"Us? The dimensions? How?" Ash asked.

"Now that you are here with the Nintendo 64, we know that the time has come. It is time to stop the cycle of destruction. There is one final piece that was kept from the Nintendo 64 to safeguard it. The power it provides is too great for mortals with desires to have, for it could lead one to crave more power, and cause the destruction of worlds. Because you have made it thus far, having overcome many obstacles, saved many lives, and now seen your true destiny, you have the power to use." Everyone was too stunned for words. It all seemed too amazing to be real.

"Remember this: the ties of the dimensions work both ways. If you end the Zox's path of tyranny, you will also end the contention that exists in the dimension that has ties to you. Now, take the upgrade, the Gamecube. Use its power to bring about peace and end the cycle of destruction. Good luck, heroes, our chosen creations." The voice then ended, never to heard from again.

A second after the voice ended, there was a blinking on Enos's screen. He turned to see that on the map of the ship, there was a red blinking dot in the power room. Above the dot were words that read, "Gamecube detected: Now initializing." Enos squinted at the screen in concentration, trying to understand what it meant.

(Replace hyphens with underlines, shifted hyphens)

ocremix.or g/songs/Mega-Man-2-Wily-Meets-Flashman-OC-ReMix.mp 3

"What is that? Wait, is that the spot where Slippy said there was something missing?" Before he could find out, the screen in front of him flickered, and then turned off. All the other control panels around them did likewise, and once they all turned off, the lights did also. Now they were in the dark, nothing could be seen.

"Ack! What's going on?" Ash exclaimed, scarred at what was happening. It was only a second after the lights went out that they all turned back on. Every screen, including the front view screen, all showed black. White letters began scrolling across the black screens, all to fast to read. Samus, all too known with computers, knew exactly what was going on.

"It's rebooting." After a few seconds, the screens went back to black, and a purple block appeared.

(Replace hyphens with underlines, shifted hyphens)

vgmusic.c om/music/console/nintendo/gamecube/Game-Cube-intro.m id

The block began to roll around the screen, and left in its path a line. Once it finished moving around, it formed what looked like a cube with a G formed in the center.

The spectacle was not over yet, though, as yellow energy began to bolt around the room like bolts of electricity. It covered the control panels and the outer walls, so everyone that was sitting down jumped away from the walls. Before their very eyes, things began to change. The control panel for the sensors turned into a single black panel, the buttons and switches on the control board at Link's station changed around, and another black panel appeared, taking the place of a few of the other buttons.

As Zero watched the things change, one of the bolts jumped out a struck his head. He was knocked back as if he was hit in the chest, but Jarom caught him and stood him up.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes. Actually, great. Somehow, that bolt just download information into my mind."

"What information?" Zero then smirked.

"An instruction manual. The 64's bag of tricks just got bigger." The bolts began to die down, and the transformation was complete. All the screens returned to their normal status. The view screen then showed Krystal and Omni on the Great Fox, a great concern showing on their faces.

"Are you guys all right? What just happened?"

"We're fine. Seems the control room just transformed itself." Alma said, getting back in the pilot's chair.

"That's not all."

"What do you mean?"

"Just take a look at the outside!" Once Enos sat down in his seat, he noticed that the map of the ship was different; quite different. ROB then sent them the view of the 64 from the Great Fox. Everyone gasped at the scene.

The gray head of the ship and the gray controller-like ends of the ship had become a dark purple. A more obvious feature though was the semi-circle ring that was connected to the ship at the parallel ends of the head, bent at a forty-five degree angle.

"So, just what does…" Before Ash could ask that question, a bright light flashed outside. The light hit the two ships and went right through them, lighting up everything. Once again, they had to cover their eyes from the intense light, but once it faded and they opened their eyes, the view screen showed that they were now inside a dimensional tunnel.

"Wow! That's amazing!" Marina shouted with glee. Everyone looked at her, and were once again shocked by the miracles of the creators. Marina was completely healed and jumping up and down from excitement.

"You're…completely healed?" Zero asked in astonishment.

"Yeah! I suddenly felt better when that light flashed." Marina said as she took off her bandages.

"Then that must mean…" Zero thought aloud as he switched the view screen to the bridge of the Great Fox. Krystal and Falco were typing something on the control panels when Fox walked into the room.

"Hey, what's going on?" Fox asked, totally confused.

"Fox! You're okay!" Krystal shouted. She immediately ran up to Fox and gave him a bracing hug. Krystal then let go, slightly puzzled. "But…how did you heal so fast?"

"It seems to be a gift from the creators." Samus said on the other line.

"Creators? Could someone please fill me in on what's going on here?" Fox asked.

"Heh, you might want to sit down Fox, it will take a while." Omni said. They then closed the communication channel.

"Ash, where are we heading?" Mario asked. Ash sat down at the controls for the dimensional drive, and was half expecting to find what he saw.

"It says planet Compet in dimension C."

"So we're being sent to the Zox home planet. All right everyone, let's get ready! It's time to send the fight to the heart of the enemy! Oh wait, did I tell you that it's also where Mario and the others are being held prisoner?"

"Really? No, you failed to mention that."

"Well then, looks like we'll have to blow through their defenses and storm the prison!"

"Simple as that, eh?" Jazz asked sarcastically.

Inside the white void known as dimension X, three beings talked amongst each other.

"Since they have found the 64, you know what that means." The female one said.

"Yes, that the caves that held the controllers must be destroyed. We can't allow anyone to obtain any information of our old technology from them. I'll leave immediately to do so."

"Wait, allow me to take care of the one in Kanto." The other male said. "I need to take care of Guardian."

"Ah, yes. Very well."

Inside the cavern in Kanto, the stone guardian stood there motionless. This special Pokemon was created for the purpose of guarding the key to the Nintendo 64, but ever since Mario, Link, Sonic and Ash came, defeated him in battle, and took the key, he no longer had a purpose, and merely stood there sleeping in his rock form.

While he slept, a small portal about two feet in diameter opened inside the key room. Once it was open though, a light began to pour out from it. Even though dimensional portals darkened the area around it, the light was powerful enough to illuminate the whole room. Then, out of the portal came a glowing white ball. The portal then closed, and the ball of light continued to float in the air, lighting the room.

Guardian's robotic sensors detected a presence, and began to reawaken him. His red robotic eye lit up red, and his rock body began to turn back to its normal half-machine half-flesh body. Once awake, he turned around to see the floating ball of light, and gasped with surprise.

"M…master? Is that you?"

"Yes, it is I." The ball said.

"So, you have ascended then. I am pleased to see you once again."

"As am I. Guardian, you have served me well. You have done as I asked, and guarded the controller for these long millenniums. You have served your purpose in protecting the controller from the hands of evil, so now your duty is fulfilled."

"What then, master, shall I do?"

"You will serve a new purpose. You will go out into the world, and live amongst humans and Pokemon as you please. Just remember this: whatever you do, make sure it is done for the good of all. Now, I will give you the power to do this." With that, the master began to glow brightly, and filled the room with blinding light. Once it faded, Guardian could see a portal opened and his master leaving. Just before the portal closed though, he sent his final words.

"Live well, my son." Then he was gone.

"Thank you, father." Guardian just stood there for a while, not completely sure what to do, and wondering just what it was that his master had done. Then, he started to have a feeling inside him, and began to know what to do. Bracing this feeling inside of him, he closed his eye, and began to glow brightly, and was engulfed in a ball of light. A second later, Guardian had changed form. He was no longer the towering Pokemon, but a boy. He could feel that he was now a human, but it was too dark inside the cave to see himself, so he went outside for the first time in a long time.

As he walked down the tunnel, he could see the light of day up ahead piercing through the darkness. As he approached it, he covered his eyes, as he was not used to the sunlight. As his eyes adjusted, he looked around him, and saw the green forest that he was now in. There was a canopy above him from the many leaves of the trees, but sunlight managed to break through it here and there and reach the ground. It was probably about mid-day, and for once, in forever it seemed, he could hear the wind and the small forest Pokemon move through the forest.

Guardian then looked at himself, and found that he had the body of a twelve year old boy. He had white skin and dark red hair that was spiked and streaked back. Somehow, his transformation also came with clothes, and found that he wore a dark red cotton T-shirt with gray cargo shorts. Guardian couldn't see it since there was no mirror, but he had silver eyes.

Guardian smiled at this, for now he could experience life like a normal human. As he looked at his new body with fascination, he could sense that he had another power as well. It was that same feeling that allowed him to transform into a human, but slightly different. Concentrating on this feeling, his body glowed again, engulfed in a body of light. A second later, he emerged as a Blaziken. He was now getting a hang of this, and used his power to transform back into his original body.

"So this is what he meant by living amongst humans and Pokemon. This can be of great advantage to me." He then transformed himself back into his human form. "Yes master, I'll do as you say. I'll live amongst humans and Pokemon, doing good on both sides." Guardian smiled and walked deeper into the forest, not fully sure of where he would go.

"This has certainly been an interesting day." Zero said, pondering over what has happened.

"I know! The whole 'chosen' thing is hard to believe." Ash commented. "And what is up with the Gamecube? I mean, why is an upgrade of great power called a _Game_cube?"

"Hey, we just came from a dimension that defies reality and spoke with disembodied beings! I don't think now is the time to be questioning the name of something." Jarom said.

"Good point."

"Sending exact duplicates to quietly replace us and then take over the Nintendo 64. This Sandfire guy certainly isn't like Karlnak." Samus noted.

"Yes. Karlnak would just gather his forces and blow up stuff, but Sandfire is much more cunning." Alma replied. "Now that his first plan has failed, we'll have to be on our toes to what else he might try. There's also quite a bit of things that are strange about him."

"Strange? How?"

"It's just these stories that I overheard some of the Zox say; they're probably just rumors. Still, the way he managed to go from a lieutenant to War Master in just a year is quite strange. And the fact that he's the only one in the military who doesn't have the bulging muscles seems quite odd."

"Yeah, but if we can take them down with this one fight, we won't have to worry about that!"

"Pika pi!" Pikachu was pointing to the screen, trying to get Ash's attention. He looked to what it was pointing at and saw what it was.

"Hey, we're reaching the end of the portal!" Ash said

"Enos, put this ship in robot mode." Enos pressed the buttons to switch modes as usual, but the way they changed was not the same. A bright light began to engulf them, much like in Dimension X. A second later though, it was over, and the ship had changed.

The robot form, like the ship form, had also changed a bit. The semi-circle ring remained in the same place, being tilted just behind the head. The shoulders, legs, and body seemed a bit more defined, and on the chest was a large circle with a word written on it. It was written in the language of the Creators, so no one knew that what it said was "Nintendo."

"Uh…what just happened?" Everyone was stunned, even though they should be used to the surprises by now. Zero, however, knew what it was since he had information downloaded to him.

"It's another improvement. Instead of mechanically transforming, the entire ship demolecularizes and remolecularizes into its opposite form." Ash merely stared dumbfounded. "In other words, it's faster." The ship began to rumble, signifying that they were nearing the exit. On the view screen, they could see the stars in space at the end of the tunnel. The ship continued to shake harder until they reached the end, and all was calm. Unfortunately, it was the calm before the storm.

* * *

A/N: Just to set something straight, Guardian does not having anything to do with N Wars 2; you won't hear any more of him. The reason I put it in here is to provide a possible branching off for another story, one that deals with Guardian and his adventures, not dealing with the heroes of this story. I don't have any plans to start that right now, but it's an idea I'm leaving open. 


	10. Chapter 5: 64 to the 3rd Power Part 2

A/N: How is it that I develop a simple plot in the back of my mind, but when I actually type it up, it turns out MUCH longer than expected? This story has the longest chapters I've ever made, I will probably turn out to be the longest story I've written so far. I only planned five chapters, and that's what we have, but it's more than 100 pages long. Oh well, I'll shut up now. Oh, and thank you very much for reading!

* * *

"So that's Compet?" Samus asked. The planet that laid ahead of them was about the size of Earth, but in no way looked like it. The planet was mostly black, being covered in mostly cites. Buildings and lights was most of what they saw, but where there wasn't any, the ground was just sand, and they could only see a few lakes. They also noticed that Compet happened to be rather close to the sun, being only the second planet from it. In addition, it had a moon, also carpeted with many buildings. 

"Now, if my controls are gone, how do I…?" Jarom tried to figure out how to use the sensor computer, and saw that the only thing there was a black pad where the controls once were. Jarom placed his large, hairy guerilla hand on the pad, and the screen started to look at the planet. His screen flashed from place to place, but he started to focus his mind, and the screen then showed the surface of the planet.

"Wow, this is amazing! The screen shows whatever I think in my mind! Wait…I can see inside ships and buildings!" With Jarom sitting there with his palm on the pad, the screen flashed from picture to picture at a rapid pace, but somehow, he was able to take it all in. "Compet appears to be a desert-type planet. Little water or fertile land, and temperatures that can reach 152 F° . Wow, there's a lot of people here. Seems like…around 20 billion, and most of them are ordinary citizens."

"Jarom, are you getting all that just from the sensors?" Alma asked, stunned at what Jarom was saying.

"It's weird…it's like I'm being fed with information from this computer. These sensors have definitely been upgraded."

"If it's a desert planet, then how could they possibly have so many people there?" Theo wondered.

"Remember, they have countless planets that they've conquered. All the resources from those planets can be transported to Compet."

"20 billion people?" Ash asked in amazement.

"Yes, the Zox reproduce quite rapidly, but it's the military we need to worry about. There are a few Zox that actually don't like what the military does, so lets leave the citizens out of our battle, okay?" Alma said.

"Sounds reasonable."

"Wait, I can see Mario!" Everyone turned their attention to Jarom. "I see them! Mario, Luigi, Peach, Sonic, Falco, Link, and D.K. They're in a prison at coordinates 5925-78."

"All right, then let's swoop down, storm the prison and…" Before he could finish, the main screen switched to the view of a Zox.

"What are you doing here?" The non-muscular Zox asked, trying to hold back his anger.

"Oh, I think you know what we're doing here, Sandfire. We've had enough of you, so now we're going to take you down!" Alma said proudly, a wide smirk on his face.

"You realize what this means, don't you? I warned you, if you failed your mission, I'll destroy Mantai."

"No Sandfire, I haven't failed, not yet. Failing would be turning this machine over to you. My real mission is to protect my people, and now I see that to do that, I have to stop you, not help you."

"So, this is Sandfire, eh?" Fox asked. Sandfire then closed his eyes and relaxed, regaining his normal composure.

"Well now, this is the first time we've met, now isn't it, warriors from dimension N?"

"Hey, aren't I included?" Jazz asked.

"My name is Sandfire, War Master of the Zox empire, and unless you surrender, I'll have to kill you all."

"Unless you haven't noticed, we've gotten an upgrade."

"Yes, I can see that your ship has changed, and it intrigues me quite a bit, but now is not the time. I'll ask you once more: surrender now or be destroyed."

"I think you've got it mixed up here! That should be out line!" Omni said.

"Oh, but it is who is mistaken. You are up against the forces of Compet, a place that no man has entered by force."

"That's it, you hideous, poo-colored, gargoyle-faced, power hungry punk! You take over my planet by force, force my people to do your bidding, treat us like prisoners in our own homes, tried to make me turn over these good people to you, and had me take the form of a fat plumber!" Zero then put his hand to his mouth and made a small coughing noise.

"Oh, yeah, and you tried to achieve dimensional domination and kill my friends. Well no more! We're gonna give you the beating that you deserve!" A wide smirk then came across Sandfire's face.

"Well, my main goal is to stop you and the 64, so if you want to help me do that, then go ahead, just try to penetrate our forces!" Then, smirking as well, Alma put his hand to his head to salute.

"Yes, sir!" The communication link was then severed.

"Multiple CDs are leaving the surface of the planet."

"So, it's started then." Alma then pointed forward towards the enemy. "Let's-a go!"

angelfire.c om/ut2/sonicdl/sa2livelearn.mp 3

Therockets on the back of the 64 burst to life, and they shot forward into battle. Omni and Krystal flew off in their Arwings, as well as Fox and Slippy in their newly repaired ones; another gift from the creators. Samus, however, had come to realize that her ship did not come close to matching the power of the 64, and would only get in the way, so instead stayed on the 64.

CDs continued to come from Compet, and it wasn't long until it looked like a giant swarm of locusts was coming to devour them. All the CDs began to fire at once, and with their combined numbers, the lasers managed to give off enough light as a small star; a shame it was all for nothing.

Zero moved his hands over the control pad, and on his screen, targeting reticules aimed for each CD, too many for even his computer mind to count. Once all of them appeared and locked on, Zero clenched his fists, and the 64 raised its hands toward the enemy with its palms faced forward.

With a force equal to none, lasers burst from the 64's palms, all heading towards the CDs. The lasers that the CDs fired were consumed by the 64's, and the lasers continued towards the enemy. Once they hit the Zox ships, it lit the sky ablaze. People on the planet's surface could easily see it even in the light of day, and sent fears to all who saw it.

"Woah! I've never seen that much power!" Fox shouted. "Guys, keep your position behind the 64! Let's not get in their way."

"Fifteen ships survived the attack, and another wave is approaching from the surface."

"Heh, that all?"

"A few ships. Hmm…perhaps this will do." Zero said to himself. The 64 then formed a yellow energy ball in each hand, and held them as they continued their journey forward.

The ships that remained from the initial attack approached them and began firing. Their lasers hit the 64, but the heroes hardly noticed it; their armor only dropped by 0.6 percent. As soon as they came to the CDs, though, the energy surged out like lightning from the balls that the 64 held. The bolts went directly for any ship that came within range, and as soon as it touched them, they exploded into space rubble.

As they continued forward though, two portals suddenly opened up on each side ahead of them, and a CD with a charged laser cannon came out each one, ready to fire.

"Alma! Keep going and press the button to your left!" Zero shouted. Alma did as he said, and just as the CDs fired their massive weapon on the Nintendo 64, the 64 phased out of reality. The ships that fired the beams were too close to each other, and when the two beams impacted with their selves, the resulting explosion destroyed the two CDs. A few seconds later, the 64 phased back into reality ahead of the explosion.

"Uh…mind telling us what happened this time, Zero?" Jazz asked. From their perspective, the screen showed them about to get blasted by the CDs, but then it shifted to a space that was orange and green, flowing like oil. Then, a moment later, the screen shifted back to the view of outer space, with the destroyed ships behind them.

"The ship phased into another reality that is parallel to ours, and since we kept moving, we were in front of the CDs when it phased back into this reality."

"Like another dimension?"

"No, it's not. What? Don't look at me like that? I just know how it operates, not how it works."

The Nintendo 64 moved towards the planet like a bullet train, keeping its same path and never slowing down. The planet got bigger and bigger in view as they neared it, and they could more easily make out the structures on the surface.

"Uh oh, something is going on down there."

"What, Jarom?"

"There's several satellites down there, and they're targeting us. It's firing on us!" Just as he said that, a laser beam came shooting out from Compet. The 64 dodged to the right, and the beam passed them, but then several more beams came shooting at them. Now they were zipping left and right, up and down, past the beams that struck out at them.

The small satellites orbiting the planet were too small to see from where they were, so Zero used the weapon's targeting system to zoom in. As the 64 dodged the beams, Zero aimed and shot them down one by one.

One of the beams made its way to the 64 and hit it right at the chest. Surprisingly, it managed to make a small crater in the armor.

"Ack! Zero, hurry up! Those things are strong!"

"I'm working on it!" Zero targeted another satellite and fired, and the laser shot down towards it. Because of the distance, it didn't hit it until four seconds later, but when it did, Zero had already targeted and fired at another.

When just a few were remaining, a second wave of CDs were coming towards them. The barrage of lasers struck the 64, but their defense still held strong. Just as Zero was about to wipe them out, however, they all stopped, and didn't come any closer.

"What's going on? Why'd they stop?"

"I don't know." Jarom continued to look at the planet at what might be the cause, but then something caught his eye. "Alma, the moon!" Alma turned the ship around to the right and looked at the moon, and saw a large, round structure on the surface. A small light was shining from it as it charged up a laser, and then, with a force that slightly shifted the moon's orbit, the laser cannon fired. A white beam five times the size of one of the CD's laser cannons came flying towards them with incredible speed.

"What are you doing? Get out of there!" Fox shouted. He couldn't do anything but look from behind the lines. The 64 raised its hands to block the blast, but the beam was much larger than the 64, so once it hit them, the 64 was completely engulfed by the beam.

"No! Guys, are you there? Anyone? Come in!" There was no answer. The beam continued to cover them as it shot out into space. Surely nothing could have survived that. But once the beam past them, the Starfox team was again shocked. The 64 stood there unharmed with its arms held out, a force shield like a giant eye lens shielding the whole ship. It then lowered its arms, and the shield disappeared.

"Sorry to worry you guys there, the blast was interfering with the communication link."

"Heh heh, uh, right." Fox said, too stunned for words. The 64 then raised its right arm and fired a laser from its palm, shooting it directly to the cannon on the moon. The single shot hit the cannon with fiery force, and destroyed the entire structure. Without giving it another glance, they went on their way to their destination.

They had now reached the debris field that was created by the destruction of the first wave, and now the second wave of CDs were approaching again. There was so much junk floating around that it made it difficult for the CDs to maneuver, but the 64 just plowed right through it, not being damaged by it in the least. The swarm of CDs were now upon them, and everything was lit up again by laser fire. Sandfire was certainly not going to let the Nintendo 64 enter Compet.

To get rid of some of the CDs, the 64 formed some more energy balls and launched them to the sides. Bolts struck out from the yellow balls of energy at any object nearby, and exploded it. Many CDs were in its path, and only added to the field of debris. The balls kept moving, and created a line of explosions that spread out in a single line.

Four CDs were approaching them right in front, so Zero activated the trusty energy blades. As the 64 clenched its fists, a blade formed in each hand, and crackled with power. The 64 then slashed the blades in an x pattern, and sliced the CDs in half. Another ship tried to make a suicide run and hit them on the side, but Alma quickly dashed forward and dodged it. Another one then came from below, but they responded by moving the ship downwards and delivering a powerful kick. The ship imploded, and the crew of the CD floated into space. Somehow, Alma's reflexes had had become faster, and was able to respond to attacks much more swiftly. He figured it had to do something with the ship, but just how it was doing it he did not know.

Space junk was thrown aside as the 64 passed through the field of debris, and was now in clear open space. Alma looked back, and saw that the Starfox team hadn't made it through quite as fast. They were still weaving through the maze of broken metal, but thankfully it provided protection from the CDs' lasers.

"Fox, stay out of the way!" Zero shouted as the 64 put its hands together and faced the palms outward towards the debris field. A light began to grow at the center of the two hands as it charged up, and four seconds later, a giant laser beam, equal to that of the one fired by the moon's cannon, burst forward. The beam shot straight into the junk, obliterating everything in its way, as well as some CDs that were still in there. Once the 64 stopped firing and the beam went out of sight, it left a hole in the field, creating a clear path for Starfox. Without giving another pause for awe, the heroes continued their descent to the planet.

"Alma, I've detected some key military bases, as well as weapon and ship factories." Jarom said while looking at his screen. He then told Alma the specific coordinates, and while still moving forward, sent several shots down to the planet.

---

Sirens were blaring all over the base as fire danced in the sky, and soldiers ran in every direction, for panic and fear was in the air. Once in a while there had been people crazy enough to try to make their way into Compet, but never did they even make it near the moon. Many had tried more covert ways by opening a portal on the planet, but the longest anyone ever went undetected was one minute. But now, not only was someone getting near Compet, but was wiping out everything sent at them, and they didn't seem to be doing any damage. Still, the pride of the empire kept them fighting, and the bravery of the soldiers kept them going into battle.

Shintou had been ordered to command his CD and go into battle with the third wave. He ran down the hall and threw the door open with all speed, and ran into the night. He was so rushed that he wasn't even properly dressed in his full uniform, but under the circumstances, such a thing was trivial. With the sirens as a constant reminder, he ran across the landing field and towards his CD. Some of his crew was already walking up the ramp and going into the ship, but Shintou started to slow down as something caught his eye.

Up in the night sky, there was something growing. At first it looked like any other star, but it was getting bigger. He came to a stop and looked up to the sky, but as the object that grabbed his attention came into clearer view, his face proportionally grew with fear. Futilely, Shintou started to run back the other way as the laser blast came and struck the base. Just as the other places that were fired upon, everyone and everything within a quarter-mile radius was annihilated.

---

The heroes were now in the upper atmosphere of Compet. They had destroyed a good amount of facilities on their way down, but now that they were this close to the surface, their range of fire had been severely limited. For some reason, the CDs had stopped approaching them, but it was most likely because they didn't want to risk causing damage to their own cities. Instead, turrets at several places on the surface began firing on them. Several blasts were hitting them, but their armor would keep them from serious damage by the time they landed. Zero didn't bother to fire at the turrets, as it seemed trivial now. All they had to do now was land at the prison and rescue their friends.

Fire surrounded the Nintendo 64 as they heated up from their fast descent through the atmosphere. The black body became a burning red, showing to the world that nothing was going to stop them. There was no clouds, so as they came closer, the city came into clearer view. It was night on this side of Compet, and the dark buildings below were speckled with brilliant lights. Street lights, advertisement signs, and the lights from cars and buildings added to the spectacle. It wasn't quite apparent from where they stood, but the technology down there looked quite advanced. With the Zox having conquered many worlds, they probably had some of the most advanced technology throughout the dimensions. As the advertisement signs got into clearer view though, they could see that they were all flashing red, and that no Zox was anywhere to be seen. It looked like an emergency had been issued, and everyone left for shelter. Even though they were coming to rescue their friends and stop Sandfire, they couldn't help but wonder what kind of terror they had caused to the innocent citizens.

The prison was now in clear sight. It was a tall building, probably about forty stories tall. It seemed to be a pretty basic building from the outside, just that it had some laser turrets and a metal wall surrounding the prison. A landing bay was within the wall, so they had a clear target.

The gun turrets that had been firing at them earlier had stopped due to them being too close to the ground now. Instead, it was just the turrets at the prison that was firing on them. Green laser blasts impacted with the hull as they descended, not making any visible damage. Increasing the power to the thrusters, the 64 slowed down as they came to the landing pad, and the feet touched down without causing structural damage.

With the 64 standing still, they were now being hit at rapidly, and their shielding was now down to fifty-seven percent. A turret was placed on the top of the wall on the four corners, two of them being behind the prison, thus being unable to fire at the 64. Alma turned the ship around to face one of the turrets on the wall, and the 64 then raised its hand towards it. A single beam was fired at the turret, but it was more than enough. The large laser rocketed from the hand so fast that if you blinked, you would have missed it. It then exploded upon impact, and the explosion not only destroyed the turret, but ripped apart the corner wall. Bits of metal went flying everywhere, splashing against the face of the 64. They then turned around, and did likewise to the second turret. With two corners of the wall being ripped apart, the connecting wall lost its support, and fell down.

"Uh…I'm starting wonder if that was actually _too_ powerful." Jazz said. They weren't rid of the turrets though, as several smaller ones were attached to the prison itself. Zero was about to shoot the rest down, but after seeing what he did to the others, he hesitated.

"Wait, what should we do? If I shoot them, I could end up tearing the whole thing down, but we'd never make it inside if we just leave them alone."

"Leave that to us!" Fox said through the communication link. The four Arwings swooped down and fired at the gun placements, and destroyed them with relative ease. They had to make a few runs before getting them all, but soon there was nothing left to shoot at them, and the Arwings landed beside the 64.

The 64 then bended its knees and knelt down, bringing its lower body to ground level. A door then slid open on its left side, and another door just behind that slid open in the opposite direction. It was about thirty feet high, so a ramp extended itself from the door and came down to the floor. The heroes ran down the ship and towards the door, but just as Omni was about to run out, he saw the door to the prison open, and four guards came out and fired at them, forcing him to quickly jump back.

The lasers from the Zox rifles were like fruit flies to the huge ship, and as they fired into the door, it seemed that they weren't hitting anyone. The four Zox stopped firing for a moment since they weren't accomplishing anything, but a second later, several lasers were fired from inside the 64, and shot down the Zox guards. The Starfox team then ran down the ramp with their guns in hand, followed by the rest of the heroes. Once they all made it to the ground, the ramp then retreated back into the ship, the door closed, and the Nintendo 64 faded out of reality.

"Huh? What just…."

"Phased into alternate reality so the Zox won't get to it, now let's get going." Zero said before Ash even finished his question. As the group rushed to the door, Fox looked back and saw their Arwings just sitting there.

"Man, wish _my_ ship could vanish." Fox thought to himself. Omni started to think of something as well, though his was more troubling.

"Odd, why are there no more Zox out here? There were plenty when we tried to get to Compet, but now that we're here, I hardly see anyone."

Samus ran ahead of the group, and the glass double-door entrance automatically opened from her presence. Inside was the entrance room to the prison, with two large counters in front and a large metal door at the center between the two counter. Red lights were flashing and an alarm was sounding. Two Zox were behind each counter, but they seemed to be unarmed, and quickly took cover as two more guards at the left and right of Samus began firing. The two Zox aimed and fired, but Samus quickly morphed into a ball and dodged the blasts. However, since they directed their attention to Samus, they didn't notice Fox and Falco enter the room until it was too late.

With the threat gone, the rest entered, and looked at how to proceed further. Alma and Omni inspected the metal door, finding it to be impenetrable. There was no handle, its seal was air tight, and as Omni tapped it, found that it was quite thick. This was probably what kept the prisoners from escaping, so mere force wasn't going to work on it. Samus looked for another way, and used her visor to hack into the computers at the desk.

"Looks like they're being held in a top security room on the thirty-fifth floor, and the rest of the guards are further inside the prison, many of them heading this way." Samus said hurriedly. They needed to make it in and out quickly if they wanted to live. "That door there will only open by two people entering a code on each computer."

"Do you have the code?"

"Just a second…yes, got it. Zero, give me a hand." Samus jumped over the counter to the right and began typing on the computer, so Zero did likewise. The two Zox that had cowered behind the desks saw that Samus nor Zero seemed to pay attention to them, so they remained in their places to hope these invaders would leave them alone.

"Zero, enter the code 679336. Okay, hit enter on my mark. Three, two, one, go!" On queue, something inside the door clicked, and then a repeating clanking noise followed, and the door swung open.

Inside was a corridor leading to an identical door, and they could see a guard behind the clear wall on the right. The Zox was standing behind a console, and most likely served as the gate keeper. Since they were obviously not supposed to enter, the Zox pressed a button on the console, and the door slammed behind them, locking them in. The Zox then gave an evil smirk, and reached for another button. Without waiting to see what would happen, Jarom cocked back his ape fist and slammed at the wall, shattering it to pieces. The gate keeper was shocked that he was actually able to shatter the wall, and this moment of surprise was enough time for Jarom to knock his lights out. Jarom then looked over the control panel, and pressed the button that opened the second door.

They were now in a larger hallway with doors leading to other rooms. The hallway was rather long, so they started running. The red lights danced around the halls to the music of the blaring alarm, trying to warn the Zox of the approaching danger. The hallway then branched off to the right, and just as the group was about to proceed straight, six Zox came around the other corner and immediately pointed their rifles at them.

Samus picked up her pace, and ended up jumping over Alma who was in the way. In mid-air, Aran fired an ice missile at the enemy. The near-subzero material inside the missile was spread out once the it impacted with one of the unfortunate Zox, and flash-froze all six of them in one chunk of ice.

"Listen up! We all need to work perfectly in sync to make it through this!" Samus shouted to the team. "Let's make a formation of two lines with me in front. Zero, Omni, form right behind me. Ash, Alma, you cover our rear. Jarom, Marina, behind Zero and Omni. Starfox, take center. Let's move!" Samus then began charging up her power beam to blow away the Zox ice cubes.

---

Inside the top security prison room, Mario looked around, wondering why the alarm had sounded.

"What's going on?" They could then here gun fire going on outside, and then crashing noises that rocked the prison.

"Something big, that's for sure." Sonic said. The Zox guard continued to stand there, not seeming to care that something was going on. In fact, he seemed to be smiling.

"Hey, what's going on here, Shin?" Falco demanded.

"So, they've come. About time." The guard said to himself.

"Say what?" Shin then turned to face Falco.

"Your rescue. I was actually starting to wonder if they would ever come." Falco cocked his head and stared at the Zox, trying to figure out why he wasn't upset about a possible prison break.

* * *

A/N: As you probably noticed, I made breaks between the different scenes. I should have done it this way a long time ago, but I didn't think it would look write. Looks like it's all right though. 


	11. Chapter 5: 64 to the 3rd Power Part 3

A/N: The song that follows is an OCRemix which I have altered slightly to fit the situation, so I hope you like it. May take a while to download, but if you like it as much as I do, it's worth it.

* * *

angelfire.c om/music6/blackphantom/KenSongN.m p3

The team ran down the metal hall as fast as they could while keeping formation, racing against the alarm. Samus chose to put herself in front for a good reason, a reason that made itself evident to the others fairly quickly.

One of the doors about thirty feet up ahead slid open, and guards with laser rifles came filing out. They lined up and blocked the passageway, some kneeling while others stood, and aimed their rifles. Before they even fired though, Samus sent a rapid stream of laser blasts from her arm weapon. The countless power beams were so destructive that it mutilated the Zox, and quite quickly cleared the path for them.

Being prepared, Samus began charging her power beam while she ran. She soon found that she needed it, as another group of Zox came out of another door up ahead. Samus fired her charged power beam just as the Zox were running out, and the blast was enough to send the beats a couple of feet before landing on the floor, not to get up again.

They now came up to a turn, with the choice of going straight or to the left; she chose the left. Since you can never really know what's around the corner, Enos knocked an arrow in his bow for precaution. As they turned to the left, they came to an elevator, but just as they approached it, it opened, and five guards immediately started firing. Since Enos had an arrow ready, he let it fly, and it hit one of them in the neck, becoming lodged in place just as the tip came out the other end. Enos would have fired another arrow, but he had to hold his shield out to block several blasts that came his way.

Samus was blasting away at the Zox, but she herself was getting hit. Her armor was strong though, and could take even more hits before worrying. Then again, she probably would worry by the time they reached the thirty-fifth floor.

Zero charged up his blaster and fired at the final Zox, but not before a laser was fired at him. Zero was hit on the right shoulder, and the force of it was enough to knock him back.

"Zero!" Marina shouted. Marina was right behind Zero, so she managed to catch him as he stumbled back. Zero stood back up and held his shoulder for a moment. "Are you okay, Zero?" Marina asked, quite concerned. Zero didn't look back at her, because he didn't want to show her that he was grimacing in pain.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

The group ran inside the elevator as more guards could be heard running towards them. The elevator car wasn't a particularly large one, so all twelve of them had to cram inside. The door began to close, and as their view of the outside hall began to shrink, more Zox came into view and steadied their rifles. The door then completely shut off the sight of them, and lasers began to pelt the door.

"Come on, take us up!" Alma tried pressing the button to take them to the thirty-fifth floor, but nothing happened.

"It's not working!" The door was now starting to bend under the stress of the lasers outside. Alma looked at the panel, and then noticed that below the buttons for the floors was a pad for scanning fingerprints. He then looked to the floor at the Zox he stood on. He had fallen inside the elevator when struck by Enos's arrow, and they didn't have time to shove him out, so instead walked over him. Alma reached down and grabbed the lifeless arm. It wasn't the most pleasing experience, but he went ahead and placed his thumb on the pad. Alma then pressed the button again, and the car began to rise, and the sound of pelting lasers drifted away. Steadily they rose, moving past the second floor, then the third, and the fourth. Once they reached the thirteenth floor, however, something began to shower on them from above. Now, the roof of the car was being hit by lasers, and the noise was loud like rocks falling on a steel room. The car shook, and their lives were again in immediate danger. The car was already set for a floor higher than they would make it, so it had to be stopped some way. Zero then took out his saber.

"Looks like this is our stop."

On the twenty-first floor, a screeching noise could be heard coming from the elevator shaft. It became louder and louder, until a green laser blade came up through the floor, and rose up through the elevator door at a decreasing speed, and stopped at the middle of the door. The blade then retreated inside, and the door burst open, flying across the hallway. With the door completely gone, the heroes could be seen inside the elevator car with Marina with her fist out in front.

The group quickly filed out of the death box, and as Samus ran out last, the elevator car gave way and descended through the shaft. The car scrapped against the elevator shaft the whole way down, sending pain to their ears.

Right up ahead was the main hallway, going directly to the left and the right from them. Just as they entered it though, five Zox on each side of them showed up from around the corner and aimed their rifles. Jarom then suddenly shouted to his team.

"Jump!" As they all did what he said, he slammed his fists on the ground. So much force was put into it that it made a small crater in the metal floor, and sent out a strong shockwave. The guards lost their balance on the floor, and a few of them fell on their rear. The distraction was short lived, but it was long enough for the ones with guns to finish the job.

"So how do we get upstairs now?" Jazz asked.

"Let's try the stairs." Samus then led them down the hallway to the right, and resumed their running.

The hallway on this floor was the same as the first; a long metal hallway with several doors on each side. According to the blueprints that Samus had displayed on her visor, that's how it was for pretty much the whole prison. The same scenario played out as well, as Samus blasted away the Zox that came out from the doors.

Having shown the defensive capabilities of his Pokemon, Ash was chosen to be put in the rear to guard them. Ash had out his Aggron, as its large size and steel-strong skin could withstand the Zox's lasers. Aggron had to run backwards though so he could see the enemy behind them, and Ash made sure Aggron didn't loose his way.

Seven guards were following them at about the same speed as them, and their numbers grew as more joined in on the fight. A melee of laser blasts was flying at them, and Aggron worked desperately to keep his body in front of the people behind him. He jumped to the left and the right when the lasers neared him, and he took the blasts to protect his friends.

One of the Zox though saw that his rifle wouldn't accomplish anything, so he chucked it aside and picked up his pace. The massive monster ran towards them like a rampaging bull, with a rage to match. Vibrations could be felt in the floor as the Zox's powerful feet impacted with the floor. He then cocked his fist back to ready a punch as he neared the Pokemon.

"Aggron, Iron Tail!" On Ash's command, he swung his body around, whipping his tail at the guard. A loud snap was heard when the steel tail impacted with the guard's leg, and the Zox fell to the ground in pain.

There were now more Zox following them then Ash could see, and treating them as ordinary Pokemon, gave another command.

"Hyper beam!" Aggron had to stop running in order to unleash this attack, and as he opened his mouth, began to build up energy. His mouth glowed a brilliant white, and once he had built up a sufficient amount of energy, unleashed it in a powerful beam. It shot out straight for the Zox, and the energy exploded on contact. That part of the hallway was filled with an explosion of light, and part of the walls tore apart from the force. What became of the Zox was too gruesome to look at, so once Ash called Aggron back into his ball, he looked ahead.

They now reached the end of the hallway, with a set of stairs placed against the wall. It was just seventy feet away when they noticed feet walking down them. As those feet went further down the stairs, they saw that a row of guards was lined up on them, and began firing at them. Zero and Enos returned fire while trying to avoid the blasts, and Samus began charging up for a super missile. Samus stopped running and fired the missile, and when it collided with the staircase, it exploded, sending the Zox on it fly to the floor.

As the smoke cleared, the staircase began to bend at the center, then snap, and finally collapse on itself. The team stopped their running at this predicament, and looked to Samus for an answer.

"Quick, let's head back! There's another path at the other end of the prison!" Just as they turned to go back down the hallway though, a gang of soldiers were running towards them firing. Ash took Aggron back out to act as a shield from the lasers, but now they were stuck. There were far too many Zox coming towards them to proceed forward, and with the stairs gone, they couldn't go back. Their path suddenly opened up to them though, quite literally.

To the left of them was one of the many doors in the hallway, and it slid open as two guards pointed their guns at them. With lightning reaction, Zero and Enos slashed out at the Zox with their blades, slicing them in half horizontally. The heroes then proceeded through the door, and into a cell block.

The cell block was as long as a football field, and just as wide. On the sides was a row of jail cells, with ledges above them for the row of cells directly on top. There must have been at least seventy five prisoners here. The prisoners were kept inside their cells with transparent, light-blue energy barriers. Most of the prisoners in this block were Zox, some muscular like the soldiers while others with the body size of a human. The rest of the cells contained beings that they had never seen before, most likely from planets they've never heard of. A curious one was a star-shaped person with hands and feet connected by thin black limbs.

The guards looked a bit surprised when they first entered, but they quickly got over it and began firing at the intruders. There were several up on the ledges, all of them pointing their guns down at them. The Starfox team used their small blasters and aimed for the ones on top. Their small guns were easy to carry, but it took at least two shots to harm the large monsters.

There were also several guards on ground level, so Samus took care of those. While they ran forward, Enos and Zero used their shields to protect everyone else.

They ran down the cell block, amidst the barrage of lasers. The guards were trained to defend the prison, but they were up against people who've saved worlds with their guns. Zox after Zox fell to the ground, and the heroes continued to proceed forward. As the fight commenced, all of the prisoners began to shout. They didn't know who these people were, or why they were raiding the prison, but if they were shooting down the guards, then perhaps they could get free. They roared and cheered on these mysterious people, adding to the noise of the battle.

In the center of the room was bridge that connected the ledges above, and as they neared it, three Zox gathered on it to shoot them down. Samus was too busy dealing with some guards in front of them, so Zero decided to take care of them himself. Having held out his boomerang shield, he was already charging up for an attack, so he took out his recoil rod, and unleashed his charged energy towards the floor. The force of the attack sent him flying up into the air with incredible speed, right over the bridge. The Zox didn't expect this, and Zero's movements were too quick. Somersaulting in the air over the bridge, Zero slashed out with his saber, decapitating all three of the guards. He then fell back down, landed back in formation, and took up his shield again.

They were near the end of the room, with a door at the end. Four Zox were guarding it, and Samus's stray power beams weren't doing any damage to the door.

"Zero, Enos, cover me!" Samus shouted. They took down their shields and started firing at the guards while Samus ran ahead. She needed to run as fast as she could for a moment before her suit kicked in, but in just a few seconds it did, and her whole body flashed with different colors, and she herself ran forward at lightning speed. The remaining guards became frightened at this new development, and jumped away from the door as she ran forward. The bounty hunter then ran right into the door, plowing it down.

As the team ran out the door, they found their selves in another hallway, and Samus led them to the left. They ran for about thirty seconds and didn't come across any guards; they must not have expected them to take this route.

"Oh…man…I can't…go on…." Ash said as he panted. Unlike the others, he still only had the body of a human boy. Someone trying to kill you is a good motivator to keep running, but now he was reaching his end. Alma looked behind him and tried to push him on.

"Come on, you can make it!" Alma's words didn't seem to help though, as he began to drift away from formation. He bumped into Aggron behind him, and even he seemed to push Ash on. Ash's senses then perked up as laser blasts could be heard. He looked behind him and saw that more Zox were following them again, and the boy trainer suddenly found the strength to go on.

"This way!" Samus shouted, and turned right into an open door. Curiously, she had led them into an empty cafeteria. It was a large one, with bowls of soup and plates of meat still warm left on the tables. Looked like they were having dinner when they came inside the prison. Once the whole team was inside, she turned around and accessed the door controls through her remote computer. The door then slid closed, and locked.

"What are we doing here?"

"There's an elevator in here that we can use." The tables and benches were placed horizontally in front of them, and since they couldn't waist any time, Samus fired at the tables in the way, clearing a path. Food flew everywhere from the tables like a food fight, some of it even splattering in their faces. The floor soon became covered in the edible mess, creating an aroma that smelled something like taco sauce combined with burnt goat.

"Eck, smells like something the professor would make!" Marina commented, waving her hand in front of her nose. At the end of the cafeteria was a large glass window, and next to it was the elevator. Inside the window they could see the kitchen, and two frightened cooks. Once they reached the elevator, they could see that a fingerprint scan was needed to enter it, so they looked to the Zox hiding behind a counter in the kitchen. Once again, laser fire could be heard. They looked back at the way they came in, and heard that the Zox were trying to shoot down the door. Jarom ran inside the kitchen and grabbed one of the cooks. He put his face up close with the Zox, hoping to intimidate him with his angry gorilla face. As Jarom spoke, the Zox cringed from his horrible breath.

"If you want to live, then I suggest you open that elevator door for us."

---

On the thirty-fifth floor, the elevator door opened and the warriors from dimensions N, and D, came out. They were now inside a corridor leading straight ahead, without any doors. They ran through it for about twenty seconds when they came up to an adjacent corridor, and Samus led them to the left. Just as they turned the corner, they came to another problem, though not life-threatening. Right in front of them was an energy barrier, and behind it was a guard sitting on a chair. Beyond the guard was another barrier, so no one could go in or out without his authorization.

The guard stood up from his chair, holding his laser rifle lax in his hands. He looked at the invaders with a sly grin, mocking them. Surely there was no way they could pass through. Jazz raised his gun and fired at the barrier, but as the energy bullets collided with it, it seemed to merely dissipate into the barrier itself, as if it was consuming it.

"Ha ha ha, you think you can through there? Only _I_ can disable it, and there's no way you can make me do that!" The guard mocked. Jarom became infuriated at his attitude, and tried to throw a punch. His fist went flying towards the Zox's head, but he stopped his hand just before it hit the barrier; the guard didn't even flinch.

"Go ahead, just stand there and try! The rest will be here any minute to take you down!" Between the two barriers was a small pad for turning off the energy fields. Samus brought her hand up to her helmet to access it from her remote computer, and tried to hack it.

"Can you open it?" Alma asked.

"Eh, no, I can't. Hold on, I'm going to try to overload it instead."

"Overload? What?" The Zox asked. He looked at the armored female, but she continued to just stare at the control panel. He looked back at the pad, and then noticed that a faint trail of smoke was coming from it. He came closer to it and inspected the small pad, and a thicker cloud of smoke rose from it. It soon began to spark, and he backed away just as pad burst from overheating, and the two barriers vanished. The guard looked back at the invaders, but only to see a fist coming for his face.

---

"Hey, did you hear something?" Link asked. He stood up from the cold metal floor and looked to the door of their small, three cell prison block. Instinctively, everyone quieted and listened carefully for some sort of sound, though it was hard to hear something faint with the siren blaring. A few seconds later though, they could hear the footsteps of several people coming to the door, and then stop.

"Could it be…." Mario and the others had seen many pleasing things in their lives, but at this point in time, they couldn't have been happier then seeing the rest of their team storm in that room; each one of them smiled happily at the sight. After sitting in that prison for several days, their freedom had come at last.

When they came in, they quickly took notice of the Zox who was guarding their friends. Everyone aimed their weapons at him, but Shin immediately rose his hands in surrender.

"Hey, I know when I'm outnumbered!" Shin tossed his rifle to Fox, and then sat on the floor to show that he wouldn't make a move. "It's about time you got here." Samus found the guard's words to be rather strange, but with time being a factor, she turned her attention back to the task at hand.

"Jazz, Zero, stay outside to make sure the Zox don't come!" Aran then ran to the cell containing Mario, Luigi, and Peach and started entering the code on the key pad to open the cell.

"Samus! Thank goodness you're here! How did you find us?"

"Long story. We need to get out of here quickly." The barrier then vanished, and as Mario walked out, he saw his copy cat.

"What the? Why are _you_ here?"

"Again, long story." Alma said. Mario still looked weary of him, so Alma extended his hand. "Look, we've made a mistake, but we're here to correct it." Mario looked at Alma's hand, and then at his face. It was like looking into a mirror, but he could see in his eyes the feelings of a different man. If the people who took their identities were here with the rest of his friends, then surely he must be sincere. Mario took Alma's hand, and shook it. There would not be any hate between the two.

Fox went to the other cell that held Falco, Sonic, and D.K. He entered the code that Samus told him and the barrier vanished.

"Man, I can't believe how many times you've saved me. Trying to put me in debt, foxy boy?"

"I'm glad to see you too, Falco." Fox said with a smirk. Falco then noticed that a copy of him was with Fox.

"Hold on a minute! What's he doing here? And the copy D.K. as well!"

"Yeah! Don't you know what they've done?" D.K. shouted.

"Please, forgive us. We did what we thought was right, and we're doing what we think is right now." Falco and D.K. crossed their arms huffed, not wanting to accept that they would help their escape.

"Can we just get going now?" Sonic said with impatience. He taped his foot on the floor, ready to bolt at any second.

Enos went to the other cell that held Link, and took down the barrier. Link approached Enos cautiously, unsure of what to say about this copy cat.

"Here, I think this belongs to you." Enos said as he held out Link's sword. Link held out his hand as well, and took the Master Sword look-alike by the hilt. Link had his sword back in his hand once again, and could now see that his mirror image meant no harm.

"Thanks. I've felt naked without this." Enos smiled, and then began to give Link the rest of his gear back.

The happy little reunion was short lived though. Not long after everyone was released did they hear gun fire. The Zox had reached them now, and Jazz and Zero were trying to fend them off.

There were many guards, and they seemed to just keep coming. They were coming from straight down the hall, as well as the around the corner where they came up from the elevator. To keep them at bay, Jazz switched his gun to bouncer ammo. The blue capsules that shot out from his gun bounced up and down on the floor as they headed towards the Zox, and explode on contact. Jazz fired as fast as he could, and the blue capsules bounced everywhere. The whole floor was full of them, like bouncing rats. They covered the whole area, even getting around the corner where the other guards were coming, keeping the Zox away before they could reach them. However, this was using up his ammo quickly, and he only had a limited supply. Zero had his gun to fire at the Zox, but with the melee Jazz was creating, he didn't see any reason to try firing.

"Hey! We could use some help over here!" Jazz shouted from the hallway. The heroes looked to the door, and started running out. As they began their retreat though, the guard Shin stood up.

"Hey, Sonic." Sonic stopped while the rest went out. He turned around to face the Zox, but remained where he stood.

"Yeah?"

"You know that guy you talked about back on Mobius?"

"Shaun?"

"Yeah." The Zox then winked at Sonic. "He's a friend of mine." Sonic then smiled back at the guard, now understanding just what kind of person he was. "Just keep this in mind, Sonic: not all of us share the Empire's feelings."

"Right! Good luck to you!" Sonic then ran out the door to join his friends. Shin turned around to look up at the corner of the room, looking straight into the security camera. It had been recording the whole thing, and would show the military that he had let the prisoners escape. He then pulled out a small pistol from under his uniform, and pointed it at the camera.

"Looks like it's time for me to make my own escape." One the video screens in the security room showed Shin facing the camera and aiming a pistol. There was a flash of light from the gun, and the screen turned to a blank blue with the words saying "Camera 853 offline."


	12. Chapter 5: 64 to the 3rd Power Part 4

Jazz held down on the trigger, letting the bouncers fly from his gun. His hands were starting to feel sore as he tried to hold the gun in place, the vibrations and jerking of the firing constantly trying to force it out of his small hands.

Jazz had his gun stocked on ammo, and he kept it up for a while, but it had to run out eventually. The noise of the gun firing suddenly stopped, it stopped shaking, and the only noise it made was an empty clicking sound. Jazz's blood turned cold; never had he heard such a terrifying sound as an empty gun. He held the trigger, but the clicking was all he heard. Without the bouncers fending off the Zox, they could now start to gather. The guards kept filling up the hallway, and now they could fire without being hit.

"Jazz!" Samus shouted. As the team came to help out Jazz and Zero, Samus saw that the Zox were all about to shoot at Jazz. Without hesitating, she ran up ahead and put herself in front of him. The lasers rained down on the bounty hunter, and even her strong armor couldn't hold up against it. She was being pounded by the lasers so much that she couldn't return fire, or barely even stand her ground. Her life gauge was dropping fast, and parts of her suit was being chipped away. One blast hit her in the head, and this one knocked her back onto the floor, nearly landing on Jazz. Aran's screen went fuzzy, and she could barely see what was in front of her. That laser blast had cracked her visor, and now it was unable to project anything to her.

"Samus!" Marina came to help Samus, but when she tried to see if she was okay, she wouldn't respond. Ash now managed to get Aggron back out, and put him in front as a shield. He was a large Pokemon, but not even he could provide protection for the whole team. The Starfox team, including Omni, lined up and returned fire, as well as Zero and Link.

Peach gasped in horror at the sight. They were being brutally shot at, Samus was on the floor, and they were trapped. They didn't have anything to take cover from, and they couldn't move forward as long as the Zox kept coming like this. Both Mario and Luigi then gathered around Peach to give her cover.

"Don't worry princess, we'll protect you!"

Starfox returned fire as fast as they could, but the Zox just kept coming. One of the lasers happened to catch Krystal off guard, and struck her right in the stomach. Her armor provided some protection, but the blast was still strong enough to pierce it. Krystal was knocked to the ground, but managed to stay conscious. Her stomach felt like it had been thrown in a fire, and when she looked at it, she could see that it was bleeding.

"Krystal!" Zero was near her when she fell, so he tried to help, but as soon as he knelt down, a laser struck him in the back. He withstood the blast, but realizing his error, he forced himself to ignore Krystal and keep fighting.

They had come so far, they had come so close. They had managed to plow through the defenses of Compet, and the team was reunited once again, but now it looked hopeless. They were still alive, but they were being struck down one by one. There was no way they could let their selves fail now, but there seemed to be no way to get out of it.

One of the reasons they were called heroes was the fact that they managed to survive even the dimmest of situations. Though not intended, their opportunity would be provided by sheer luck, and by the very one who sought their heads. In the middle of the crowd of Zox, one of them shouted something. It was hard to hear what the shout was, but it might be because it was in a different language, or perhaps a military code. Either way, every Zox ceased fire.

The Zox lowered their guns, and began to part a line in the group. They stood aside as someone walked through, and the guards raised their hands to salute the man. The person who walked out from the crowd of Zox was none other than the War Master himself.

"Well, well, well, I figured this would be the place you'd come. I must say, I'm amazed at how you've become so much stronger. From our original data on the 64, you should never have made it this far." Sandfire spoke with the utmost calmness. He was presenting himself as a cool and collected person, even in the heat of battle. "Yet you have." Alma and Mario cautiously approached Sandfire. With the fight currently stopped, Link and Fox helped Samus and Krystal up. Samus had regained consciousness now, and since Samus could no longer see with her visor, she took her helmet off and carried it in her hand.

"So then, why have you come here?" Alma asked.

"To personally see your demise, of course. I do have an offer for you, though. You can choose to surrender and live out your lives here in this prison, or I can just kill you all right now."

"What kind of choice is that?"

"A good one, Mario. I have you completely surrounded. I can kill you all on the spot right here, but I have plans for you if you're alive." Alma then turned to Mario and whispered to him.

"Mario, leave this to us."

"What? You man leave you and the other Zoramites?" Mario whispered back. The Zox could not hear what they were saying, and Sandfire figured they were deciding amongst their selves their options.

"Look, it's our fault you're even in this predicament. Run, and we'll cover you. Leave Sandfire to us."

"I can't just leave you!"

"Yes you can." Alma and Mario had been whispering, but the next words that Alma said was at the top of his lungs as he shoved Mario away. "Now go!"

The Zox became alerted at Alma's sudden actions, and the rest of the team recognized what was going on. This was their chance; if they didn't take it, it would only make things worse. Within seconds, it was again chaos.

Mario and Luigi jumped up towards two Zox that was in the way. With them up to the height of the Zox, they both cocked their fists back and slugged them both in the head, a move that Mario commonly used in the Smash Bros. tournaments. The two Zox fell to the floor, leaving the two Zox behind them open for attack. Marina and D.K. then moved in punched them in the stomachs. With their powerful strength, the two Zox went flying backwards, knocking down the rest of the Zox in the way. A path was now open for them to escape, and they took it.

Everyone ran to the elevator despite their injured bodies, although Fox had to carry Krystal on her back. The guards quickly turned to fire on the escapees, but the Zoramites put their selves in front of them.

"Dimension G46!" Alma shouted.

"What?" Mario shouted back as he ran for the elevator.

"Dimension G46, planet Mantai! Please, save my people!" Mario turned around and gave Alma a thumbs up as they ran inside the elevator.

"I promise!" The elevator then closed, and the sight of him fending off the Zox was the last he saw of them.

Alma then turned back to the guards, no longer with any concerns in his mind. The guards and the Zoramites were too close to each other to fire guns, so a vicious hand-to-hand fight commenced. Sandfire then took out a communicator from his pocket.

"Squadron 55, they're escaping! Make sure they don't get inside the 64!" Sandfire then looked at the fight between the guards and Alma, Jarom, Omni, and Enos. The Zox were using their guns to whack them around, and despite their powerful strength, they were having a tough time with the Zoramites.

"Halt!" At Sandfire's words, the guards immediately halted. Alma panted and looked at Sandfire, again confused at his actions. "I'll take care of them." Sandfire said. The guards then lined up against the wall and stood like statues, making sure not to interfere with their master.

"What? You're going to fight us?" Alma could hardly believe his ears.

"We've taken down hordes of your soldiers, and you're not even half the size of them!" Jarom said.

"Surely you don't mean to take all of us on!" Omni added.

"Heh heh, yes, that is true, my physical strength is poor in comparison to just one of you. Physical strength is quite an odd thing, don't you think? With it, many people are able to rise to power. Yet still, it has its limits. There are other kinds of strengths then the physical kind, though. Strengths that can far exceed the physical kind." Alma was beginning to worry at just what Sandfire was going on about, but still his confidence held.

"You're still outnumbered you know."

"Numbers are meaningless compared to me." A wicked grin then came over Sandfire's face, one that the devil might have when destroying a soul. Sandfire then raised his hand towards his enemies, and snapped his fingers.

---

The heroes were once again running down the hallway with guards on their trail. Ash took a glance behind him, and could see that Aggron was tiring. Not only was he panting, but each laser blast he took, he seemed to be taking it as if his whole body was sore. Aggron may be strong, but everything wears down if you strike it enough.

"Man, it would be nice if there was one of those energy barriers to keep those lasers away." Ash thought. "Wait a minute! Why didn't I think of this before? Aggron, return!" Ash held out his Pokeball and returned his Pokemon. "Now, Mr. Mime, I choose you !" At Ash's voice command, the Pokeball relayed the information through the dimensions and to Oak's Pokemon storage and transfer unit. Mr. Mime was then transferred to Ash's Pokeball, and came out to join the battle.

"Mr. Mime, use Light Screen!" The mime Pokemon placed his hands in the air as if pressing against an invisible wall. After about two seconds, he then turned around and ran along with Ash. The Zox continued to fire their guns, but this time, they disappeared in mid-air. The guards were confused, but kept running after them anyways. They soon found that it was a mistake, for when they came to the point that the lasers vanished, they ran right into something hard, and fell back down.

"Yes! It worked!" Ash shouted with joy. Ash knew the invisible wall wouldn't hold forever, but by the time that happens, they would be long gone.

With Mr. Mime putting up walls, and having already gone through the prison, getting back down seemed to be easier and faster. Before they knew it, they had made their way outside. Unsurprisingly, a squadron of soldiers had gathered around the Arwings, as well as where the Nintendo 64 had been. As soon as they stepped outside, they were being fired at. They quickly ran back inside the prison to take cover, but now the soldiers were coming towards them.

"What do we do now?" Slippy then smiled and raised his arm.

"Heh, watch this." Slippy touched a button on a device around his arm, and a small control pad opened up. He pressed a button on it, and his Arwing then started up.

"What's going on?" Mario asked.

"I've recently set up my Arwing for remote control. Haven't tried it out yet, so consider this a test run." The Zox stopped moving towards the prison as the Arwing started up, and then re-directed their attention to it. The ship rose vertically off the ground and remained hovering five feet above the ground. It then turned around to face one of the guards, and fired. The laser rocketed out from the ship and hit the soldier with deadly force. The Arwing was designed to take down ships, so a single Zox was nothing in comparison.

Every soldier began to fire at the ship, but the Arwing continued to blast away the Zox. The soldier's guns were strong, but again they were flies compared to the ship's hull, and didn't manage to stop it by the time it had taken down each one of them. With the coast clear, they dashed for their ships.

"Hey, where's the 64?" Mario asked. As they got close to it though, it reappeared. "What the? Is that the 64? Why does it look different?"

"We'll explain as soon as this battle is over."

Once everyone made it inside the control room, they took their respective places; places that, except for Zero, was new to them. Mario sat down in the pilot's chair, and noticed that things had changed quite a bit. He started up the 64, and immediately noticed a different feeling. He somehow felt more connected to the ship, and yet more in control. Link sat down at his station and noticed the same thing, as well as seeing that the controls had changed. When Sonic sat down at the sensor grid, he didn't even know what to do.

"Touch those pads." Zero merely said. Sonic and Link did so, he quickly figured out what to do.

"Fox, how are things on your end?" Mario asked. The screen turned on and showed Fox in his Arwing.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Slippy and Falco are too. I put Krystal in her Arwing and had ROB transport her to the Great Fox, so she should be fine."

"Good, then let's go." The 64 then stood upright, the jets on its back fired up, and they launched into the air with Starfox following suit.

"Mario, here's the quick version:" Zero started. "The 64 has been upgraded to the near point of invincibility, so we've come to not only rescue you, but stop the Empire as well. So fly us to some military installations and I'll start blasting."

"Uh, okay." Mario still had a lot of questions, but at least now he understood his mission at hand. "You better hold on to something, princess." The 64 flew up higher into the air while Sonic looked for other military installations. Once the city on the planet became a shapeless formation of colors from their distance, more CDs started to attack. They were coming from Compet, so Mario flew away from the oncoming CDs while Zero blasted them away. Mario was simply flying to avoid them, but after a while, he started to notice something: they were getting father and father from the planet.

"Mario, there's a large base at coordinates 56543-732." Sonic said.

"But that's on the other side of the planet."

"Don't worry about the CDs, we can handle them." Zero said, trying to convince Mario of their power. Mario turned the ship to fly around the planet, but a CD that nearly ran into him caused him to make fly further from the planet. They continued to try to get the other side, but before they knew it, Compet had become just another planet in the distance on the view screen.

"Wait a minute…if I didn't know I better, I'd say they were trying to lead us away from the planet!" Mario couldn't be any more right, for at that very moment, the CDs broke off their attack, and left the 64 and the Arwings there. The Great Fox had also joined them now, and flew alongside the 64. Then, everything went dark. Space always is dark, but now, even the stars were disappearing from the sky. Portals were forming all around them, and a CD came out of each one. The CDs completely surrounded them, forming a sphere with the 64 in the center. There were so many of them that the sphere was the size of the moon, and each one of the CDs was charging up their main cannon.

Mario froze in fear. He knew he had to get out of there, but how to do it he wasn't sure of. They could try to shoot them down, but by the time the CDs fired, it would still be too much.

"Ash, get us out of here!"

"But Zero! What about Alma and the others? They might still be down there! What about the shield? We survived the moon cannon that way!"

"It doesn't matter how strong we've become, there is no way on Nintendo we can survive that, now open a portal!" Ash did as he was told, and opened a dimensional portal. The Arwings flew inside the Great Fox as it went inside the portal, and the 64 then followed them in.

Once inside, they breathed easily. If those CDs had fired at them, the combined force would have been enough to destroy an entire planet. Alma was not exaggerating when he said that the Zox could destroy an entire galaxy if they pulled all their forces together.

Their hearts began to beat faster, though, as a bright light began to come towards them from behind them.

"Is that…?"

"No way! The explosion went inside the portal!"

"Mario, step on it!" The 64 picked up speed as the blast followed them at deathly speed. The Great Fox wasn't able to move as fast, so the 64 placed its hands on the ship and pushed it. The 64 had greatly improved, but it still wasn't faster than a planet-size explosion. The burning light was closing the distance between them shorter and shorter.

The view screen showed the explosion behind them, and as Luigi looked at it, he started to notice something. At first he thought he was just seeing things, but soon he could clearly see that the walls of the dimensional tunnel were swelling around the explosion wave.

"Uh, is it just me, or is the walls expanding?"

"How can that be? Is that a bad thing? Sonic, what's going on?"

"Don't look at me! I only know the basics from what Tails told me!"

"Slippy, do you know what's going on?"

"Uh, well, it could be that the force of it is so string that it's tearing apart the dimensional portal."

"Then does that mean it could rip? What happens then?"

"I don't know! We've only begun to understand how the dimensions work. Maybe the entire dimension could implode, I don't know!"

"This can't be good." The walls of the portal continued swell and a fiery death was closing in on them. The end of the tunnel was getting closer though, and now they could see the stars at the end. The control room was getting warm, as the heat that radiated from the explosion was heating them up.

They now came to the end, and as soon as they were out, dove downwards. The explosion wave burst out of the portal, like water coming out from a giant pipe. The blast continued out into space, and aonce it was all over, the portal started to wobble as if it was made of gelatin. Thankfully though, the portal shrank, and closed off. Space was peaceful again, and in the distance they could see Nintendo.

The heroes let out a heavy sigh. Once again they had survived impossible odds, but this time, there was much loss.

"Come on, let's go back now!" Marina said, anxious to go back and stop the war.

"Go back? That's nonsense. We'll just run into the same thing!"

"So, that means if we try to go and invade Compet, we have only half an hour to accomplish something." Link figured.

"Actually, I think it's more like ten minutes. Did you see how organized that attack was? I'd say they were waiting for us to get away from Compet so they could fire without harming their home." Zero said.

"But…what about the Zoramites?"

"Chances are they're dead. Even if they made it out of the prison, they would have needed to take a ship to get out of there, and there wasn't any in the near area."

"They sacrificed their lives for us. Let's not forget about that. It's because of them we're alive right now." Samus said. They then looked off into space, thinking about Alma and the others. A few minutes passed as they contemplated things, until Ash spoke up.

"So…what do we do now?" Mario then looked up towards his team, and spoke with resolution.

"First, we take princess Peach back to the Mushroom Kingdom. After that, we have a promise to keep." The heroes had gained the power of the Gamecube, and they figured that with it the war would be over. It wasn't until then that they had come to realize that it was only a changing point in the Dimensional War.

---

Sandfire looked at his victory with satisfaction. The four Zoramites laid on the floor dead, their bodies partially burned. Sandfire on the other hand stood in the same spot he had when the fight started. It was all too easy for him. The guards that witnessed the fight stood amazed with their jaws dropped; they had never seen such power. Sandfire didn't mind the guards' surprise though, as they would soon forget what happened anyways.

The sound of footsteps was heard running down the hallway, and Sandfire turned to see his personal messenger running towards him.

"What is it, Gadner?"

"Sir, you told me to inform you as soon as it started, so I'm here to tell you that the first factory has begun production on the M-rates. We should have ten fleets ready by the end of the week."

"Excellent. I want the pilots trained for them as soon as possible."

"Sir, I'm sorry about the prison break."

"Don't be sorry, not much was lost here?"

"Sir?" Gadner was utterly confused from Sandfire's calmness. His Zoramite plan at capturing the 64 had failed, and the N Warriors he had captured had escaped. Surely this was a big loss.

"Yes, at first glance, this looks like a terrible loss, but if you come to realize the gain, it's actually beneficial."

"The gain?"

"Knowledge, Gadner. Surely you remember that each Zoramite is implanted with hidden devices, including sensors?"

"Oh, yes! Of course!"

"Take those bodies and extract their sensors. If they've been around the 64 enough, then we might be able to gather enough information to copy that technology. After all, we're in need of a new mother ship." Sandfire became so enthralled in the delight of a ship of that power that he began to chuckle. His devilish laugh filled the halls, and the soldiers couldn't help but join in on the excitement.

To be continued…

Credits roll as song plays

(Replace hyphens with underlines, shifted hyphens)

ocremix.o rg/songs/Mega-Man-2-Chillout-OC-ReMix.m p3

All characters and music are property of their respective owners

Author

Black Phantom

Story

Black Phantom

Producer

Black Phantom

Special most of all…

YOU!

THANKS FOR READING!

* * *

A/N: Let me speak before you get the wrong idea. This is certianly not the end. It is, however, the end of the fic part. You see, the main activity of this story happens on the Nsider forums, the official forums of Nintendo. At the start of this story, I had promised my readers that the fic would run to a certain part, and then, this story will become an RP. In other words, each person is going to assume the role of each character. 

If you would like to join in, please, fell free to do so. Just sign up at Nintendo's official site, and from there you can participate in the forums. To find out where to go, just PM

(Replace hyphen with underline, shifted hyphen)

BLACK-PHANTOM

and I'll tell you what to do.Ifyou can't join or just don't want to, don't worry, as I will be converting our transcrips into the regular part of the story, and post it here. In either way, thanks for reading!


	13. Rise of an Empire

A/N: No, this is not part of the RP. This is basically just a brief, broad history on the Zox.

**

* * *

**

**The Rise of an Empire**

Things went on as normal. Business continued, kids went to school, and life went on. Even though a powerful ship had penetrated their forces and invaded a prison, everyone went on. There was, however, a different feeling in the air. There was a sense of insecurity, a feeling of being vulnerable. Not since the news of the death of Karlnak and the destruction of the mother ship had anyone felt like they were in any sort of danger. For years the Zox had felt perfectly safe, knowing that no harm could ever come to them. The destruction of the mother ship was horrible news, but it was not as devastating as what happened only yesterday. A ship had penetrated what they thought to be an invincible barrier, and entered the very heart of the Zox world. Such an action was more danger than the annihilation of the several military facilities.

Though the same daily actions went on, there was a different talk amongst the people. Talk of invasion, of aliens, revenge, and other like subjects. Even the children noticed the difference in the air.

As usual, the children met in the classroom a few minutes before class started, chatting and goofing around like children do.

"Man, I can't believe we actually have to go to school today."

"I know! The whole planet almost blows up and we still have to go to school. Why can't we get today off?"

"At least those guys got what they deserved!"

"But I heard that they managed to escape."

"What? No way! Nothing could have escaped that!"

"Yeah? Well my mom says that they lived."

"My daddy is in the military, and he says that they did escape! But they know where they're going, and they're gonna finish them off!"

"Hey, did you guys see it?" One child asked excitedly.

"The ship?"

"Yeah! I managed to hide in my room when everyone was going to the shelters."

"Wow! Was it cool?"

"Way cool! It came flying through the sky, and everything was shooting at it, going all 'boom, kapow!' And it came right down on the prison! The thing was like a thousand feet tall, with these long arms that shot huge lasers, blowing up a whole turret with one blast!"

"Hey, who do you think they broke out of the prison?" Their discussion was cut short when the bell rang. They all stopped talking as soon as it rang, and they took their seats. There were about fifty children in this one class room, and this school had many rooms.

The teacher walked in just as the bell rang, carrying with her a case of school supplies while drinking something from a warm cup. She sat her things down on the desk, opened her case, and took out a small disc.

She was more slim than the males and less muscular, but besides for the female body parts, she didn't look that much different from the males. Unlike humans, the Zox were a race of very little genetic variation. If you were not a Zox yourself, you probably couldn't tell the difference from one person to the other.

"All right children, now I know you're all bummed out because school wasn't canceled, but tomorrow is a holiday, so you can rest tomorrow. Now, as I'm sure you all know, tomorrow marks the 300th year since the Unification. So today, we get to watch a video on the history of that grand day." The teacher inserted the disc into a slot on her desk, and pressed a button. The lights in the room turned off, and a holographic projection of a screen popped up in the front of the class room.

The screen started off black, playing a mellow song as the title of the video, "Unification: the Start of an Empire", came up. What followed was a barren desert, harshly blowing sand at twilight. A narrator then started to speak.

"It's the year 3 B.U., three years before the unification of the Zox race. Wars have ravaged the planet for countless years. Just how long the wars have been waged is unknown, as few documents have survived from this bloody time in history. Our early ancestors have been split into different factions, each fighting for their own cause. Two of the most significant factions were the Pixlens and the Vectrons. Each fought for dominance of Compet, and many lives were lost each day, but neither seemed to gain any lead.

"The year 3 B.U. though is the beginning of the end to these wars. This is Valason Rel Yisip, leader of the Pixlens." The video showed a rather muscular Zox standing heroically on top of a boulder. He wore a pair of loosely-fitted black shirt pants with a tattered red cape, holding a machine gun in his arm.

"Valason had barely managed to escape an attack by the Vectrons. His entire squadron had been defeated, and now he had to make his way back to the rest of his army and face humiliation. However, when resting in the desert of Karlnak, he would find the answer to ending the wars." The video showed Valason looking up into the windy, sandy sky, when a small dot appeared. It became bigger and bigger, until suddenly it came crashing into the ground just a few hundred feet in front of him. The shockwave from the impact knocked him off of the boulder and onto his back, but when he got back up and went to the crater, he was shocked at what he saw.

In the crater was a sliver, saucer-shaped ship, large enough for only one person to fit inside. Valason cautiously crept closer, when suddenly a door opened and a hideous alien came out while screaming at him. The alien was mostly a large head, with several tentacles attacked to the bottom for moving around. The alien reached inside his ship for a gun, but Valason fired first. Several bullets went flying from his gun with a loud barking. Since it was a video for children after all, it didn't show the creature getting hit, but merely fall to the ground dead.

"After Yisip inspected the ship, he quickly learned how to use it. The flying saucer had technology far beyond what they had at that time, and with it, he changed the fate of our race forever. Once he showed the power of the ship to the other factions, they quickly surrendered. With the knowledge that there were other beings beyond Compet, the different factions put aside their differences and united with the Pixlens, joining to become the Republic of the Zox. And so they entered the days of A.U., after unification.

"With less effort being put into warfare and more into the betterment of life, new advancements in technology came about almost every day. With better agriculture and water collecting systems, villages soon became cities. However, with the wars over, they came across a new threat: population explosion. Since people were not dieing from war, and health improving, more and more people were being born. The population of 136,000 in 1 A.U. would reach ten million by the year 40, and Compet would not be able to support that many.

"Since the encounter of the rogue alien, scientists had tried to build similar space ships, and in the year 23, they successfully landed on the moon. But in the year 26, they came across a more important discovery. They had earlier found that there was a machine on the flying saucer that was broken, but now had managed to find out how it works. This was the discovery of alternate dimensions, and dimensional travel. Equipping this technology to the space ships, they made the first travel to an alternate dimension. With it being the first dimension, it was named dimension A.

"Dimension A was similar to our own, with a planet named Compet, inhabited by a race also called the Zox. However, this Compet was covered in sixty percent water, flourishing with plants and food. The Zox that lived here were a smaller version of our own, being only about two feet in height, with shorter arms and legs. These Zox had lived a peaceful life, and so their technology had advanced years beyond our own. They welcomed the dimensional travelers with open arms, and learning of their own world, were compassionate to them. The Zox of dimension A shared their technology with us, and from it, Compet of dimension C expounded in scientific knowledge.

"Once our ancestors became almost parallel in scientific knowledge with our dimensional counterparts, a great tragedy occurred. A meteor suddenly struck Compet of dimension A, and the Zox of that dimension became extinct. Shortly after, in the year 56, the Great Migration began. With the new technology they had gained, their space ships were built much larger, and carried many more people." The video showed several large flying saucers leaving Compet and enter portals. It then showed one of the ships land on a planet that was covered in rain forests. The only creatures on the planet was small birds and insects, so the Zox simply turned the planet into their home.

"From that time and till even this very day, our people flew through space and the dimensions looking for new homes and resources, solving the population problem.

"In the year 132, a new problem arose. Compet, as well as colonies on other planets, found their selves under attack by different races, believing that we had become too powerful. They were scarred of our numbers, and sought to eradicate us. The military since this time had been a simple one, but with more and more worlds fighting against us, the military was forced to grow stronger, and more powerful. 134 A.U. is the year that the first CD was created, and became the staple ship of the military.

"The military had become a crucial part in the government, and the government adapted along with it. The different planets that fought with us soon slowed down as victory after victory was made. Then, in the year 148, a change was made to make sure that no one would try to come against us, to strike fear in those who would try to harm us. The Republic of the Zox was changed to the Empire of the Zox, for in this time our people had spread so far and wide that we had truly become an empire. Further exploration continued and the power of the military grew, making sure that no fellow Zox would come to harm. And, well, as they say, the rest is history.

"It is Valason Rel Yisip who we have to thank, for if he had not found that alien and its craft, our people would still be fighting amongst each other, and we would not have become the Empire we our today. May he rest in Peace."

The Empire had things going good. They controlled the schools, they controlled the teachers, and made them teach what they wanted the future generations to know, molding the children into how they wanted them to be, even if it meant altering their own history.


	14. Chapter 6: A Cold Reunion

A/N: Well, since this story now depends on the others, how quickly this story will be updated is up in the air, as well as how long the chapters will be. Oh well, here's the first transcript of the RP.

P.S.: Fixed the paragraph clumping. When I copied and pasted the posts from the RP, there was residual coding that caused them to clump, even though it looked all right on the Works document. Butthanks, I like specific criticism.

* * *

**Chapter 6**

**A Cold Reunion**

The first thing that Mario came to realize was that it was cold. Everything was dark, but as he started to come into the waking world, he became more aware of how cold it was. He stirred and blinked his eyes, as soon as he realized his surroundings, he immediately stood up.

Mario was lying face down in the snow, inside a small crater. Mario looked around him, and everywhere he saw was snow. There was light in the sky, but it was a dark light with the thick clouds overhead and the snow blowing over him. His body ached, his skin was going numb, and he didn't have a clue what he was doing there.

"Wha…what happened? Why am I here? A small crater…lying face down…did I fall from the sky? What was I doing last?" Mario thought hard to remember, despite the chilling wind. "I was…in the 64. We we're heading to Mantai." Flashes of fire and feeling of danger then entered his mind. "Eh, no, something went wrong. We…we were under attack. No, it was an ambush! The Zox were waiting for us! We were attacked, and then there was an explosion, and I was knocked from my chair, and then…Eh, I must have blacked out. But, if I was in outer space, then how did I end up here? Alma had mentioned that Mantai was a cold planet…could this be it? But why am I here?" Mario was frustrated. He had blacked out, and was now in a completely new surrounding.

"Wait! If I'm here, maybe the others are!" Mario got to his feet and crawled his way out of the small crater. Everything around him was covered in snow. There was mostly snowed-covered ground around him, but there was also a forest of what seemed to be pines not to far in front of him. Mario scanned the area through the falling snow, and found a few other small craters, and one of them had long hair sticking out of it.

"Zero!" Mario ran over to the crater and found Zero lying in the snow face down, just as he himself was. Mario grabbed and shook him, trying to get Zero to wake up. "Zero! Come on, wake up! Tell me you're not dead!" Mario shook Zero, but there was still no response. Thinking of another idea, he took out a fire flower from his pocket. Mario had stocked up on some supplies before they left Nintendo just in case, and it looked like he needed it.

Mario didn't know much about reploids, but surely this snow wasn't helping him. Walking over to the forest, he collected some pine cones and twigs. Then, he setting them up in pile near Zero, he used the power of the fire flower to shoot a fireball at the pile and it instantly went ablaze. After a few minutes, Zero started to twitch and mutter, "Marina.…"

"Marina? Uh, I don't know, she might be here. You wait here Zero." When Zero didn't reply, he could see that he was only talking in his sleep. Mario then got up to look for the others, but before he got far, he tripped and fell on his face. Looking back to see what he had tripped on, he found it to be Ash's leg.

"Ash!" Giving it a good tug, Ash was pulled out of the snow. He was looking blue, so he took him over to the fire to warm up. As Ash started to come to, the first thing he did was reach for his belt.

"Huhhh...my Pokeball's gone...maybe...maybe I can find it.…"  
Ash tried to get up, but his strength soon failed him.

"Ash, take it easy. I'll look for it."

"Mario? Ash?" A faint voice came from behind. Mario turned around to see Marina and Donkey weakly walking towards them. D.K. was helping Marina stand up, as she didn't look too well.

"Guys! Over here!"

"What's going on, why are we here?" Marina asked in a weak and worried voice.

"I don't know. I think there was an explosion on the 64, and somehow we're here now. Here, sit by the fire, I'll look for the others." Zero then started to mutter again.

"Marina...Marina...is that you...?"

"Zero?" Marina looked at Zero stirring in his sleep, and couldn't help but feel bad for him, yet strangely embarrassed. Zero never said anything like that when he was awake, but if he said it in his sleep, could it mean anything about how he actually felt?

Something started to rustle in the snow, and when Ash turned to see it, he smiled when he saw Pikachu slowly crawl out of the snow.

"Pika.…" Pikachu was weakly standing there holding onto his Pokeball. Walking sluggishly, Pikachu came on top of Ash's lap and tried to warm up.

---

Mario went back into the field of snow, looking for the rest of the team when he saw Falco lying in the snow. Mario ran over to him to see if he was okay. Whether he was horribly cold or not he couldn't tell, as Falco was naturally blue.

"Falco? Are you okay? Come on, wake up!"

"Ugh, Mario...?" He slowly stood up, legs shaking. "Are the others...?"

"Alive? At least some of us. Come on, let's look for them."

"Falco, is that you?" Both Falco and Mario looked to their right, seeing Krystal slowly walking their way, her arms folded for warmth.

"The others...they're here, but I can hardly sense some of them. You okay, Falco?"

"Yeah, I think so." Falco answered. "Can you point out to Mario where the others are?"

"Yeah. Mario, this way, I think Jazz is over here." While Falco went to sit with the others, Krystal followed her mind to Jazz's presence. Sure enough, they found him in a small crater, his green fur covered in snow flakes.

"Jazz, can you hear me?" Mario asked while rubbing Jazz's fur.

"Eh, what? Huh, Mario? What happened?"

"Go over to the fire and warm up. We're still looking for the others." Despite the cold numbing away his body, Mario couldn't let himself sit until everyone was safe.

---

Zero was walking through a meadow with Marina. It was a bright, sunny day, but suddenly the sky darkened. A portal opened and an ugly, skinny hand came out of it and grabbed Marina. Zero tried to jump and slice it, but the hand shot an energy beam at him and Zero fell down. Burnt and his armor chipped, he could only mutter Marina's name.

---

Ash slowly bent himself up and looked at his Pokeball.

"Wonder how we managed to survive? And our gear too!" Ash tossed his Pokeball, calling out the Pokemon he wanted. "Magcargo!" Ash had called this Pokemon because of its naturally heated body. "Not even a good rain could cool him down."

As D.K. sat by the fire with the others, he slammed his fist against his palm.

"Dang, how could this happen? We had the 64 blasting away the Zox, and now we wind up here without it! How could we have fallen for a trap like that? That blasted Sandfire knew that we wouldn't let down Alma, so he had those CDs waiting for us, ready to fire as soon as we got here."

"Speaking of which, where are we?" Falco wondered. Marina wasn't any more sure than Falco, but she did have an idea.

"Perhaps we made it to Mantai. That's where we were headed, and Alma said it was a cold planet." Marina looked to the gray sky, hoping to see if she could see the sun, but with all the clouds, she had no luck.

Ash looked around the area hoping to see some sign of civilization.

"If that's true, then where is everybody? I don't even see signs of the…." Ash's last words trailed off as he spotted a small shadow dart off into the storm, and fade out of sight.

"Well...so much for no one here!"

"If the Zox know we survived, they'll probably come looking for us." Marina noted. Falco was just as curious about their current situation.

"Huh...Well, I guess we all will just hafta wait for the others. And we still don't know where the 64 is, or if it even survived that explosion." Of course, after that last upgrade, as the others had earlier explained to him, the 64 should have been near invincible. It should have survived...or did it?

---

As Fox started to come to, he felt rather cold, but he could hear voices going on beyond his vision. It was the sound of Krystal, and that was all he needed to hear to get himself to stand up, even though his body was aching as if he had fallen.

"Krystal?" Krystal turned around as she heard Fox's voice. Looking at one of the small craters, she saw Fox stand up.

"Fox!" Krystal ran over to him, and gave him a warm hug. "I'm so glad you're okay. Your presence was weak for a moment there, and I had trouble knowing where you were." Mario looked at the two foxes who appeared to be better off in the cold then he was.

"Man, wish I had a fur coat." Mario thought to himself.

"Come on, let's go find the others before someone, or some_thing,_ else finds them."

"Y-yes. The l-longer we stay here, the more d-danger we're in of being spotted. This is a Z-zox-controlled planet, after all." Slippy said through his chattering mouth behind them. Mario, Fox, and Krystal looked to see their friend walking up to them. Slippy's kind was able to survive a wide range of temperatures, but the cold was still enough to make him sluggish.

"Slippy! You're all right!"

"You mean besides freezing my butt off? Yeah, I'm fine. Though I have this aching pain in my back."

---

As soon as the hand went up into the portal and disappeared, the beautiful meadow turned into a frozen, desolate wasteland. Zero then started to mutter again.

"Marina...no.…" Then, the hand came out of the portal and picked him. The hand then threw Zero into a pit of spikes at the bottom, and right when he landed, the dream ended.

Zero bolted upright as he woke up from the nightmare and looked around.

"What's been going on...where are we? Marina! You're safe!"

"Yes, I'm fine, Zero. Why would something bad happen to me?" Marina said with a smile, slightly chuckling. Even though the cold was making their skins less of a fleshy color, Marina's face was slightly red. Zero's face then suddenly registered as shock.

"Huh? Oh, uh, I mean, I had this uh, nightmare, and well, I guess it was playing tricks on my mind. So, where are we anyway?"

"Wish I knew."

---

"What's going on?" Link asked. He was slowly walking towards Mario while holding his head.

"Link? There you are! Thank goodness you're all right! I don't know what's going on, but somehow we survived an ambush. Come on, we need to find Sonic and Samus." Mario said.

Krystal directed them to another one of the craters, and in it laid Sonic and Samus. Samus was holding on to Sonic's arm, almost as if she was trying to protect him from the fall. They were both unconscious though, and still laid in the snow.

"Samus! Sonic! Come on, get up!" Fox ran up next to Krystal and helped her pull Sonic and Samus out of the crater.

"Let's try to wake them up." He then pulled out a small bottle of water, though it was nearly frozen by now, and poured some on Sonic's face to try and wake him up. Never liking the water, Sonic woke up and shook off some of the cold.

"Oh, hey, Krystal...Mario.…" he said looking up, somewhat dazed.

"Ungh…." Samus mumbled, sitting up slowly. She rubbed her helmet as if trying to get rid of a headache. "A…are we here?" She asked uncertainly. She looked at the others, hoping for an answer.

Sonic then looked over at Samus.

"Yeah, guess so...but how'd we end up here?" Link then stared at Samus.

"I'm not even sure were here is…."

"It could be Mantai, but I'm not cer.…" Mario paused in his talking as he heard a ship fly off in the distance. "I don't think we should hang around here." Everyone gathered at the fire to look at what their next move is, but Marina noticed something.

"Hey, wait, where's Professor?"

"I...I'm sorry, Marina, I don't sense Theo." Krystal said sadly.

"He was sleeping in the beds when we were in the 64, perhaps he's still on it." Mario said.

"If the 64 is even in one piece." Jazz mentioned. Marina became quite worried about her professor, but their attention was changed when they heard footsteps in the snow. It was coming from within the forest, and once the figure came out, everyone was shocked at who they saw. Somehow, for some reason, it was Knuckles.

"Knuckles?"

"There's no time to explain! Quickly, follow me to safety!" Knuckles shouted. Mario was hesitant to listen. After all, what if it was a trap? Another ship could be heard in the distance, and this time, Mario was certain that it was the sound of a CD. Trap or no trap, they took their chances.

The team ran as they followed the speedy Echidna into the forest. They were led here and there through the trees, and more and more CDs could be heard convening where they once were. Sonic raced after Knuckles, trying to get some answers.

"Hey! Knux, wait up! It's me, Sonic!" Knuckles ignored him though, and they continued until they came to a rock wall. Knuckles kept running on ahead, and vanished right into the rock wall.

"A hologram? This is starting to look familiar." Taking a leap of faith, Mario ran towards the rock wall, and disappeared.

Fox started running after them, even though things were uncertain.

"Hey team, lets go before the CDs get here!" And with that, they swiftly followed the others into the unknown.

As they walked beyond the holographic wall, they entered a tunnel of ice. All around them was solid ice, and though it was cold, it felt warmer than it was outside. Knuckles was running down the tunnel, so they followed him in deeper. As they got deeper in, Knuckles started slowing down. Despite Sonic's call, he remained quiet, ever facing forward. After walking for about a minute, the natural ice cave took more of a uniform shape. It apparently had been dug further in.

Mario looked straight into the echidna's eyes, and could sense a different mindset than the person he knew as Knuckles.

"You're a Zoramite, aren't you?" Mario asked plainly. Knuckles then turned to Mario with a smirk.

"Yes, I am. Come, all will be answered when we reach the base." Knuckles then looked at Sonic, and though he had never really met him before, he had memories of him.

"So, you're Sonic, eh? Knuckles has quite a few opinions of you."

"Heh, that sounds like Knuckles." Sonic replied. Fox came up next to Mario and whispered into his ear.

"If he's a Zoramite, how did he get to the real Knuckles? I think he might be in league with the Zox." Knuckles, however, happened to overhear their comments.

"Don't worry, Knuckles is fine as far as I know. I took this form long before the Zox even invaded dimension N. The Zox often use us to gather intelligence on places before they invade." They then stopped as they came to a metal door with a key pad to the right. Knuckles started entering something on the key pad, and after an affirming beep, the door slid open.

"Welcome, dimensional warriors, to the Resistance base." Beyond the door was a large cavern, with many people. Some had the original bodies of Zoramites, while others had the form of other people. Sonic couldn't help but gasp in wonder.

"Whoa.…"

"Wow, there are certainly quite a few people here!" Link exclaimed. Sonic then walked up to knuckles, still confused.

"Wha...what's going on here?"

"It's the Zoramite Resistance, Sonic. While the Empire is controlling us with an iron grip, a few of us have managed to hide here while trying to liberate our people. Considering that you are here, and you know who we are, I take it that Sandfire's plan of using us against you has failed. What happened to those people, anyways?"

"They're...dead." Mario said solemnly. "They died protecting us. They went against Sandfire and helped lead us to Compet. Sandfire said that he would destroy Mantai if they turned against him, so we've come here to help them by helping you."

"Yes, we did hear that Sandfire threatened to destroy Mantai, but I doubt he'd do that." Knuckles said. "I think it was more of an empty threat because he knew there was the risk of them turning against him. But, you're still going to help us, right?" Mario then nodded his head.

"Of course. But, we don't know what happened to the 64, and in our present condition, I'm not sure if we'd be too helpful."

"What? You don't know where your ship is?"

"No. We're not even sure how we ended up here." Jazz said. Knuckles then looked puzzled.

"Hmm, that's strange. Come, follow me. Perhaps a refresher is need." Knuckles led them further into the base, and towards a computer station. Fox followed closely to ask a pressing question.

"Did you find anything recently like ships or fighters of any sort? Even if I had one Arwing we could try to find the 64."

"No, I'm afraid not." As they walked to the computer station, Mario couldn't help but ask the question.

"If you have the body of Knuckles, then where is Knuckles?"

"Wherever you last saw him. I took this body about two months before the Zox invaded your world. I was used to take Knuckles's place to gather intelligence, while Knuckles was kept away in stasis. After a week, I was taken back and Knuckles was returned without anyone knowing. For all Knuckles could know, he just had a long sleep. When the Zox took me back here, they saw that I had taken a form that's too strong, and saw me as a threat, so they tried to execute me. I managed to escape though, I found my way to the resistance. That's how it is for most of us you see here; people lucky enough to have escaped the Zox and come here."

When they came to the computer station, they saw several monitors showing different views of the planet, and some of outer space.

"This is where we monitor things that goes on around Mantai." Knuckles explained. "So you say you don't know how you got here then?"

"Right."

"Well, let me show you what happened then." Knuckles started pressing a few buttons on the console, and one of the screens showed a blurry picture of space with several CDs floating around. "Please forgive the poor quality; we make due with what we manage to swipe from the Zox. We first noticed some strange activity was going on about a day ago, as several CDs formed a barricade around the planet. It wasn't until recently did we hear about the attack on Compet, which would make sense for this sudden action. Anyways, this is what happened two hours ago."

A spot in space started to swirl around, and a small object came out of that point. Nine CDs immediately targeted the object, which they could now see was the 64, and fired their main cannons at it. A bright flash filled the screen once the beams impacted the 64, and the ship began to drift towards the screen.

"As you can see here, the 64 began to take a direct course towards Mantai. I suspect that is when the pilot became unconscious, as it doesn't appear that anyone is flying it. Course, I'm amazed that the 64 could even survive a blast like that. Most ships would have been reduced to space dust."

"Yeah, that's the last thing I remember: us being ambushed by the Zox. But, I don't remember anything after that until I awoke on the snow."

The screen then switched to a view of the snowy planet, with the 64 coming down like a comet towards the surface. Just as the ship was about to crash into a chain of mountains, it straightened its course, and flew across the sky.

"This is the part I don't understand. If you were all unconscious, then who was piloting the ship?" Everyone stood there shocked, unable to answer Knuckles's question. How could the 64 fly itself? As far as they knew, there was no auto pilot of sorts that would do that, and they were all unconscious. Marina's face suddenly lit up, though, as she remembered something.

"Hey, could it be the professor? He was the only one who wasn't in the control room with us. Maybe he came and tried to pilot the ship!"

"Hmm, that might be possible. The flight path is unsteady, like someone who doesn't know how to steer." Zero mentioned.

Back on the screen, the 64 was gradually descending, and speeding across the sky. As it came closer into view of the camera, they could see that it was in bad shape. Several sections of the armor had been blown apart, there were fires coming out of it, and two of the controller ends were missing.

Two CDs were chasing the 64, and managed to catch up quite quickly. One of them fired several shots at the side, and an explosion ripped apart the hull on the side of the ship, right where the control room was.

"This is where you all fell out."

"You know, the 64 never did have any seat belts." The 64 continued to fly away, leaving behind a trail of smoke. As the CDs continued to fire at it, it then disappeared from sight.

"It went into stealth mode!" Mario said with a gasp.

"Then that means the 64 must still be in one piece somewhere!"

"And with the professor!"

"You know, even with the repair bots on board, it would probably be a while to repair all of that damage. It's possible that if we wait, and Theo is on board, then the Nintendo 64 might find us." Samus mentioned.

"It's a good thing you guys landed near our base. If you hadn't, it would have been the Zox who found you first."

"Well, now that we know the 64 is still somewhat intact, what about the Great Fox and all of our Arwings? A landmaster would also be very helpful right now; it would be easier to get through all this snow. Mantai is a lot like Fichina with the Climate Control center offline."

"Oh yes, the Great Fox. Well, if you look closely enough to the screen, you can see the Great Fox along with the 64, but after the explosion, it becomes less and less noticeable. A robot named ROB pilots it, yes? I think he might have retreated seeing that he was vastly outnumbered. He might come back when it's safe, but I can't say for sure."

"Well at least there's a possibility that it survived. maybe we can try contacting ROB." Fox then tried to use his wrist communicator to contact the Great Fox, but all he got was static. "Darn it, I can't get through!"

"Hey Fox, try to change the frequency, huh?" Falco said, disappointed that Fox didn't think to do that.

"Good idea, I should of thought of that." Fox said with a slight embarrassment in his voice. Fox then started scanning the frequencies until he started to get a faint beeping. "Hey, I think I'm getting a faint signal from the Great Fox. It's very faint; can we use these computers to track the origin?"

"Uh, yeah, I think so. Just let me see that." Knuckles took the wrist communicator from Fox and set it by one of the computers. He took off one of the panels on the communicator and connected it to the console, and then started typing in something.

"Eh, dang, I feared this. Looks like the Great Fox is somewhere in space directly above us somewhere, but how far it is I can't tell with this piece of junk. Man, cruddy computer!" Knuckles said as he whacked the machine, though not hard enough to do any damage to it. No matter how poor their technology was, it was better than nothing. Knuckles's shout, however, attracted the attention of one of the other Zoramites. His footsteps made a clanking noise, as his sword bumped against his metal armor. It was a shining blue armor, and his wild red hair stood out in contrast.

"Oh, heroes, let me introduce you to one of our captains, Moroni, though we usually call him by the name of the person he's taken, Roy." Knuckles said with his arms gesturing to Roy.

"Hello. It's an honor to meet the ones who actually succeeded in penetrating Compet. I'm glad to see that we can have some help from such heroes. Well, about that signal, maybe if we could swipe something from the Zox, we might be able to boost the signal."

"If you guys want to help us, we can raid some of the Zox installations, we could find some better equipment. Uh, you will help us, right?" Mario then replied in a serious tone.

"I made a promise to Alma that we would help save Mantai from the Zox, and I plan on keeping my word." Listening to the plan, Ash started becoming confident.

"We could definitely raid a Zox installment if we got out of the heart of Compet alive! One installment should be no problem! Especially with all you Zoramites as well." Ash then turned to Knuckles and asked, "Can Zoramites morph off each other? Because if we had a few more Knuckles we'd be able to take more than a few things from the Zox!" Knuckles, however, seemed rather embarrassed by Ash's question.

"If we transform into something other than a Zoramite, then we loose that power, as we completely take the body of someone else. Because of that, we rarely transform into other people. The only reason I'm like this is because the Zox forced me to. Asking to do such a thing is not a light matter. It's a life-time commitment."

"Oh, I see." Ash said, somewhat embarrassed. Trying to change the subject, Link moved on to the more important business at hand.

"How many Zox installments are there on Mantai?"

"How many? Pretty much everything outside of this base belongs to the Zox. Not just the military bases and command centers, but my people's living quarters as well."

"But How many large military bases are there? Because those are what we need to target."

"Well, main military bases, that would be sixteen."

"How far is the closest one?"

"About a day or two in this weather if you make good time." Roy said while typing at the computer. "But it's well defended."

"I'm sure it is." As Mario thought about the mission, his weariness started to come more to his mind.

"Well, if we're going to raid a base, I think we should rest first. After all, we've been thrown out of a ship and tossed into an icy world. I don't think we're in the utmost condition for fighting."

"It's colder the Phendrana drifts…." Samus muttered.

"I think _all_ of us should rest so we can plan the attack in the morning."

"Agreed."

The Zoramites led the heroes to a hallway, where they were shown to a door to a room. Each bedroom was made to fit ten occupants, and the beds consisted of a thick blanket and a pile of greenery.

"Sorry, I know this isn't the best of accommodates, but it's all we have to offer." One of the Zoramites said.

"That's all right, thanks." Mario said, trying to sound humble.

offer." One of the Zoramites said.

"That's all right, thanks." Mario said, trying to sound humble.

"It's been a rough day, and it looks like it's not going to get any easier." Mario said as he dropped to the makeshift bed.

"Indeed. Get your rest, so we'll be ready for tomorrow." Zero said. Though it was not the most comfortable thing in the world, they managed to fall asleep. After all, it would be the best sleep they would have in a while.

* * *

A/N: Thanks for reviewing! I'm always glad to see people reading! 


	15. Chapter 7: The Search for Power Part 1

**Chapter 7**

**The Search for Power**

When everyone woke up that night, for they had slept during day light, they gathered together, along with Knuckles and Roy. Mario looked at his team, and saw that they were ready.

"So, the trip to this base is going to take two days? We better get moving then. Lead the way, guys." Roy took the lead, and with a farewell wave from the Zoramites, the group headed out. They exited the base, and then proceeded through the tunnel up to the surface. Once they came out of the holographic wall, they came out into the snowy world. Since the heroes had not come prepared for such weather, the Zoramites provided them with some extra clothing to keep them warm.

They definitely needed it, as it was snowing, and the wind whipped it against their faces. It was very dark, and though it was hard to see through the blizzard, it provided protection from the eyes of the enemy. They proceeded north, towards the base which might hold some valuable equipment. Though Sonic, Jazz, and Knuckles could make it their much faster, there was safety in numbers, and had to stick together.

"Man this is cold!" Fox said as he trudged through the thick snow. "Wait a second, I have an idea!" Fox then went to the front of the group and took out his blaster and aimed it towards the ground and fired, clearing the small area of snow that stood there. "If there's less snow it should be easier to walk through, and we're gonna need all the energy we can get when facing down the Zox base." Fox continued walking, firing his blaster every so often to clear a path.

"Well, it's muggy, but at least it's flat ground." D.K. said. Roy walked at the back of the group hood up, cloak tightly wrapped around his body, eyes scanning the area around them watching for enemies. They went on like that for the rest of the day, trudging their way through the blizzard while keeping an eye out for anything dangerous. They still traveled amongst the pine-like trees, which provided some protection, but it was still bitter cold.

On the second day, things were becoming monotonous. White everywhere, and no sign of life beyond their group, which is why they were nearly caught off guard when a ship came near.

"What's that?" Krystal said out loud. She stopped walking, sensing a presence beyond them.

"What is it, Krystal?"

"I sense other people. Ah, they're coming near us!"

"Quickly, hide in the trees!" Fox immediately stopped firing his blaster and ran for cover in the trees next to Krystal. He held his blaster at the ready, not knowing what to expect.

Roy silently slid into the shadows drawing his sword at the same time. He looked to Knuckles, seeing the danger of this.

"We can't fight here. We need to conserve our energy for the attack on the base."

"I know, but which is why it's crucial we're not spotted." As Mario listened carefully, he started to hear the noise of a ship. It was difficult to hear in the snow-filled wind, but it got louder as it approached, and he quickly recognized it as a CD. Mario looked above him, beyond the covering of the tree, and saw the CD stop, and remained hovering right above them.

"Shoot." Mario said quietly. "Maybe it will pass. No way we can take that." Link remained still, but as he looked to his side, he spotted something.

"Mario, someone's watching us." Mario looked in the direction that Link motioned to, but couldn't see it through the snow.

"I don't see.…" But then he something. It was a pair of eyes, looking right at them. It wasn't moving, or even blinking, but remained fixated on them. It didn't look like the eyes of a Zox, but they didn't look friendly.

Suddenly, the creature jumped out. It was a wolf-like animal, with two huge fangs and red markings all over it's face. It drooled, and howled as it ran with lighting quick speed towards the Heroes of Dimension N. Link raised his sword in defense, but the creature pounced before Link could raise his shield, and knocked Link into the snow.

---

"Hold on, I see something!" The pilot of the CD halted the ship, and kept it in place.

"Did you find them?" The captain asked. He walked over to the Zox who was looking at the sensors. On the screen was an aerial view of the ground just below them, showing heat signatures of several creatures.

"Sir, see this? I think it might be them!" The captain took one look at the screen, and saw two of them fighting amongst each other.

"Argh, you idiot! It's just more snow vamps!"

"But sir, I'm sure that.…"

"Edner! If you stop us one more time because of those wretched beasts, I'll put you to guard duty!" One mention of that, and Edner stopped arguing, even though he was sure this time that it was the ones they were looking for.

"Pilot, keep moving! Those warriors from dimension N have to be somewhere around here! We saw that empty fire by the crash site, so they have to be still alive! Now keep searching!"

---

The snow vamp had Link pinned to the ground, clawing at his chest. Mario was about to help him, but Link managed to grab his sword and pierce the beast at its side. With a loud yelp, the snow vamp fell to the ground.

Mario then looked to the sky, and saw that the CD was moving on. Mario let out a sigh of relief; it looked like they evaded danger once again.

"Thank goodness we got out of that one alright" Link was about to move on, but he suddenly heard something. It was a voice, and it sounded rather harsh and rough.

"Right lads, the pig-face ship's gone, 'ya can come out now." Just beyond the heroes, the ground slopped down about thirty feet before leveling out again, and just beyond it was a group of humanoid figures moving silently through the tundra. They wore immense fur coats with hoods, along with balaclavas, and snow goggles.

"Vorin! Someone's up there!" One of them said. Link then realized he was in plain view of them.

"Let's get out of here." The humanoid Vorin said. "It could be a pig-face sniper."

"Pig-face?" Link said to himself, wondering what they meant by that. "Could they be referring to the Zox?"

Mario ran over to see what was going on, but the mysterious people started leaving before he could even get much of look.

"Huh? Who are they? Roy, are there other beings on this planet? They don't sound...too intelligent."

"I don't know, I hadn't seen or heard of such people, but I think we should just continue onwards." Hoping they might be of help, Link yelled out to them.

"We're not pig-faces! Who are you?"

"It could be a trap." The other humanoid said.

"Or, Sorin, they could be friendly, like them changers." Said Vorin.

"But they could be agents of the pig-faces, they got some of them changers workin' for 'em, we should be cautious." Said Sorin.

"Strange, they sound like they know us, but I never heard of them. Maybe it was someone else they met?" Knuckles thought to himself. Vorin then turned and faced Link.

"Ello over there! Can you here me? My name's Vorin! Do you have a space ship?" Link then turned to Mario.

"Mario, what do you think we should say? They could be friends, or they could just as likely be foes." Roy then sheathed his sword and walked into plain view of the strangers.

"Hello! I am one of the _changers, _but we're not controlled by the pig-faces. If you are not with them you have no reason to fight or fear us." The man Sorin stood there in fright.

"It's one of 'em changers, them things is after us." He said

"Uh, Roy.…" Samus started. "Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to tell him you were a _changer_." Roy then took his sword off and put it into the ground.

"We don't mean harm to you."

"You lie!" Sorin said.

"He's a changer, he works for 'em pig faces."

"Sorin! Stop it! We need to see what these people want." Said Vorin. "We're Minthorian traders from Raxinous 9, our ship got caught up in one of 'em black swirly thingies."

"You mean Dimensional portals?"

"So that's what 'em things are called, eh?"

"Traders you say?" Mario asked, now interested in what these beings might have to offer. "Do you have anything that we might want to trade?"

"No, I'm afraid not." Vorin replied. "Ya see, we is goin' about ours business, see, when one of 'em pig face ships comes blunderin' through space, and into this here black swirly thing, now all of our goods is gone with the ship, burned up. But, there _is_ something you could help us with."

"Yes?" A wide smirk then came across Vorin's face. They had them just where they wanted them.

"You can all put your hands up!" Vorin shouted as he pulled out a laser rifle. As he did this, all the other so-called Minthorians pulled out laser rifles from under their coats.

"Oh, crud."

"Surrender now, and we won't kill you on the spot!" Seeing that the heroes wouldn't comply, the disguised Zox gave the order he preferred. "Exterminate them!"

Everyone ran for cover behind the trees, though they would provide little protection. Mario reached into his pocket and grabbed a feather, and a cape appeared behind his back. As the lasers came flying towards them, Mario stood his ground and flapped the cap. Two lasers impacted it, and were sent flying back towards two other Zox, and knocked them dead. Before the group had even managed to make it to the base, they already found trouble.

Vorin took out a communicator from his pocket, and pressed a button to reach the central command, but just as he was about to speak, a laser hit him in the arm. He dropped the communicator as his arm barely stayed connected. He looked up the hill to see who fired, only to see another laser fire right at him. It was the last he saw.

"We won't have any of that, now." Falco said, holding the gun that killed the commander. At least now they couldn't call for backup.

Link grabbed his sword and ran down the hill, protecting himself with his Hylian-crafted shield. As he approached one of the Zox, he thrusted his sword into his gut, and immediately charged up a spin attack. When he unleashed it, he spun around and around while moving closer to three other Zox, and sliced them cleanly in half. These soldiers didn't seem to be trained much in hand-to-hand combat, as they merely moved around while firing.

Sonic ran forward to join Link, jumping into the air over the slope. He curled up into a ball and spun around in the air so fast that he appeared to be a blue sphere. He then came falling straight down on top of a Zox, and knocked him out cold. Sonic then dashed along the ground, giving a hard ram at each Zox he came across.

Marina took cover behind a tree, while lasers filled the air. She peaked out around the tree to see if she could do something, but quickly pulled back when a laser approached her. As soon as she took cover, a laser flew past her, striking the side of the tree, and tearing away a chunk in splinters. Marina looked above her, seeing the CD above beyond the leaves. Then, an idea struck her. She turned and faced the tree, and gave it a strong punch at the bottom. With one loud snap, the pine tree snapped at the base, and Marina lifted the entire thing.

"Take this on for size!" Marina said while holding up the tree on its side. She then threw it down the hill, and Sonic and Link quickly rolled out of the way. The tree then collided with the remaining Zox, knocking them down and crushing the rest.

"Quick! Let's get out of here, now!" Without a moment's waste, they ran as fast as they could.

The heroes ran and ran. After running nonstop for about ten miles, the group finally came to a stop, trying to rest their burning lungs.

"I think...we lost...them."

"Maybe."

"We've got to...be more...careful." Mario said, trying to catch his breath. "Eh. Sandfire is definitely trying more...creative ways to stop us. They're no longer doing straight out attacks. If we're not on our look out...we could fall for another trap like that one. Come on, after we catch our breath, we need to head out. Once they find out those people are gone, that base will probably be on higher security."

"I think we need to lie low for a while until they have moved away from this area. We might need to stay in hiding for a few days, but it gives us time to plan for the assault." Samus said, then sat down and rested against a tree as he thought.

"Well, I say we at least get near the base, so we can study its layout and workings, and make a plan from there."

After resting for an hour, the group moved on, trekking their way to the base. Already they had come across trouble, but if they could find something at the base to send a signal to the Great Fox, then the effort would be worth it.

After walking for another day, they finally came to the Zox military base. The sun was starting to rise, and the blizzard was dieing down, making the base clearer to see. It was about the size of a small city, and probably held the residence of many soldiers. It would take some time to plan their attack, so in the mean time, they took shelter in a small ice cave. It was behind a pillar of ice that was once a waterfall, a couple of miles from the base. Hopefully they would be safe here for the time being.

"How about just me and Sonic go in? We could run in and grab what we need without them even knowing we were there?" Jazz said, making a plan of attack. They had been in the cave for a day, hoping that the Zox would think they moved on, and would be less suspicious of an attack on the base.

"True, but we can't be sure of what to expect in there. If we all go, then we can use our combined talents to make it through." Mario said. "We'll need to get to that tower at the center of the base there. Inside should be their communication array, where we could probably steal something that can boost the signal of the station back at the Zoramite base. Once we have it, we can escape to the hanger and swipe a vacant CD. We could then use its dimensional drive to get back to the base without the Zox knowing where we went." Mario said.

"Swipe a CD? Are you serious?" Knuckles couldn't believe his ears.

"The communications tower is right next to the landing site, so if we can find one without many on board, it shouldn't be too hard."

"Heh, so is this how you've become such heroes? Risking your lives with such insane plans?" Roy asked. Fox smiled back.

"Ha ha, just about."

The next day, as the sun began to set in the horizon, the heroes stood behind a small hill of snow. Just a few hundred feet away beyond it was the base, near a building that appeared to be a soldiers' quarters.

"I see a security camera there, there, and there." Link said as he pointed out the cameras on the fence surrounding the area. Fox aimed his blaster at them and, using his keen eye, hit them dead on.

"Good, let's move." Stealthily, they approached the fence. There was electricity running through it, so Zero was the one to take care of it. He took out his green saber, and sliced it right down the middle, opening a path for them.

They then snuck up to the soldiers' quarters, and walked along the wall. There were no doors on this side, but they could see light coming from some of the windows. Hopefully, there would be a good amount of Zox sleeping right now. Once they came to the end of the building, there was an adjacent quarters, but there was a large enough of gap in between them to fit through. Making their way and coming to the end, they came to a sidewalk, which laid right next to the road. About thirty blocks down was the communications tower that they needed to reach, but they would have to cross streets, buildings, and more fences.

"That's strange." Samus mused. "We haven't met any Zox yet." Mario was about to head out, but stepped back into hiding when he heard footsteps. A Zox soldier was walking down the street, and came up to the building to the left of them. He disappeared from sight when he went past the corner of the building, and the sound of a door sliding open could be heard.

"Well, seems to be some Zox around, but I would have expected more." Seeing the coast to be clear, they quickly and quietly ran across the street, taking cover behind a building that smelled of dinner.

Donkey Kong took a look behind him to make sure no one was coming from behind, but failed to see what was in front of him. He walked face first into a trash container, making a loud clanging noise. Everyone glared at D.K., but their angry stares were changed to that of worry when a door slid open, letting out the light from inside the mess hall. A Zox wearing an apron walked out, looking angry.

"Greg, is that you out there? I thought I told you to empty the trash an hour.…" The cook stopped dead in his tracks as he saw that it wasn't Greg. He was about to turn and run, but D.K. quickly gave a whack to the head, silencing him. The door automatically closed, and he dragged the body behind the trash container.

"Come on, stop goofing around!" D.K. didn't say anything to Mario's comment, but merely huffed as they continued on.

After walking past several blocks, they came to another road, but on the other side was a tall metal wall, with security cameras on top. Just beyond it they could see the tower, but now they had to cross this obstacle.

"I'm tellin' ya, those guys are out there somewhere!" A Zox said to another one. They stood there on the sidewalk, talking to each other.

"And for a group of people that penetrated Compet, you'd think we'd be on higher security."

"Yeah, but after all, you don't question the higher up. Our opinions don't seem to matter when it comes to the people in offices." It seemed like they would just stand there continuing to talk, but thankfully, they moved on. Mario then motioned to Fox to take care of the security cameras. Fox took out the security cameras, and luckily, no one heard the gun fire, or the cameras being shot down. They then walked out into the street, and looked up at the wall.

"All right then, so how do we scale this wall?"

"We can use my Long-Shot. We can get up there one at a time with this."

"Good, that should work fine. Now let's get moving before someone comes." Mario went first, firing the hook over the wall. Once the hook was secure, the device reeled the chain back in, and Mario was pulled to the top of the wall. He then tossed it down to Fox, and he likewise came up. They continued until Jazz was left, but as he went up, they were spotted.

"Hey, you!" The Zox immediately raised his rifle, but everyone jumped off the wall and on to the other side before he fired. Jazz thought about shooting him to silence him, but since he yelled, there was no doubt that someone else heard and they would be found, so shooting him was pointless. He jumped over the wall like the others, and gave back the Long-Shot.

"Shoot! There goes our cover! The alarm will probably be sounded now." Mario said. He looked ahead, seeing their destination in clear view now. They were on wide open pavement, as it was a part of the landing area for the CDs. About 1500 feet ahead of them was the communications tower. Suddenly though, the alarm started sounding, letting them know that stealth was now pointless. Jazz cocked his gun and looked straight towards the tower, determined to give the Zox what for.

"Time to rock 'n roll."

(You know the drill)

ocremix.o rg/songs/ShiningintheDarkness-DownintheDungeonJustCreaturesandMe-OC-ReMix.m p3

Asthe alarm sounded, the soldiers took notice. Doors were opening from the nearby hangers, from the communications tower, and a gate on the wall, with soldiers running out of them.

"Jazz, Sonic, you two go straight forward for the communications tower! We'll try to cover you!" Link grabbed his bow, and shot at an arrow at an approaching Zox. Fox saw a Zox aiming for Link, so he fired his blaster hitting him dead on. Zox were everywhere now, and guns fire filled the air.

Sonic was about to run for the tower, but then realized something important: what the heck was he going to do when he got there? He knew nothing of electronics, but someone else did, so he grabbed hold of Knuckles' arm.

"What? Hey, what are you doing?"

"Come with me! You'd have a better idea of what we'll need!"

---

Jazz ran forward as fast as he could. Zox came towards him from all sides, but he fired away, mowing them down. The tower was ahead, and he could see the doors that lead inside. Jazz fired a toaster, igniting one soldier's clothes. As he ran away with fire flaming up his chest, Jazz found another one that was right behind him. A laser was already pointed right for him, so he ducked and rolled under the beast's legs, got back up, and continued running. Thankfully, his back was covered, and the Zox behind him was shot down.

Jazz dashed toward the tower, where four Zox were guarding the door. Jazz switched to his split-missile ammo, and with its double missiles, took down two soldiers. The other two were left standing though, and one of them managed to fire at Jazz's feet, hitting his foot.

Jazz stumbled, and with the speed he was moving at, tumbled across the ground, the pavement grating against his skin. He rolled until he came to a stop right at the feet of the Zox.

"Well, who do we have here?" The soldier said with a grin. He pointed the rifle right at Jazz's head, and moved his finger to the trigger.

Before the Zox could fire though, Fox shot its hand. He dropped the laser rifle, giving Jazz an opportunity.

Putting aside the pain throughout his body, Jazz raised his gun and fired the Zox in the chest, blowing him away. The other soldier that guarded the door was busy firing at Zero in the distance, and didn't notice that his companion was shot dead until it was too late, and was shot down by the same gun. Using his gun as a crutch, Jazz managed to stand himself up.

"Ah, man, this really hurts." Jazz looked at the door in front of him, seeing the target so close at hand, but he wouldn't survive if he couldn't run.

"Pidgeot, go!" Ash shouted while tossing the Pokeball in the air. The large bird Pokemon appeared in a flash of light, and soared through the air. Flying at mach 2, it dove towards Jazz, and in a gust of wind that knocked down everyone around him, picked up Jazz.

"Keep him safe for now!" Ash held his Pokeball in hand, and until Pidgeot returned, he couldn't use anyone else.

---

Sonic was running right behind Jazz, with Sonic carrying the Zoramite Knuckles. Knuckles was quite fast on his own, but not as fast as the blue hedgehog.

When Sonic saw Jazz be carried away by Pidgeot, he knew it was now up to him. The main door was open, and no guards in sight, so he ran inside. Sonic had to drop Knuckles and take cover as lasers flew towards them through the open door. Knuckles then ran towards the door and tried messing with the keypad next to it. After trying several buttons at random, he managed to hit the right one, the double-sliding doors closed.

The bottom floor of the tower was slightly smaller than the size of the tower itself, which was only fifty feet-two feet in diameter to begin with. All there was in this room was an elevator, and a staircase. Given the history with elevators, Sonic chose the stairs.

Sonic and Knuckles ran up the first flight of stairs in the blink of an eye, turned around, and ran up the next flight. Unsurprisingly, on the third flight, three Zox were running down the stairs towards them. As soon as the soldiers saw them, they aimed and fired. It was utterly pointless, though, as not even their trained aim could hit the likes of Sonic and Knuckles. They reached the guards before the Zox could even take in their next breath, and were quickly knocked down over the railing, and sent falling to the ground.

They came across five more guards as they made their way up, and they too met the same fate. By the time they reached the top, twenty stories high, they came to a metal door.

"Heh, let me take care of this." Knuckles said with a grin. He cocked his fist back, and with a punch that heated the air around them, put a large dent in the door. He tried again, this time bending the hinges. Another punch was thrown, and the door fell down with a loud bang.

In front of them was a large circular room with the several different consoles against the walls, each doing their own tasks. Fifteen Zox were at the controls, all of them frightened. They didn't seem to have any sort of fighting training, so they weren't a threat. Sonic then pointed behind him towards the door, and said,

"If you want to live, then get out of here." They didn't hesitate, and ran right for the door. "So, now what?" Knuckles then proceeded to inspect the computers, all them doing things he wasn't fully sure of. One of the consoles, though, caught his attention. It had a screen showing some CDs in outer space, with a microphone next to it. Figuring it would help, he started looking around it when he noticed a slip of paper sticking out from under a keyboard. He naturally picked it up and read it.

"Access code: 6663-495-38476-g." Taking a look at the screen, he tried typing something, and a window came up, saying, "Deep space communications network. Enter security code to access." Knuckles tried the code on the piece of paper, and just as he figured, managed to gain access.

"So this code can get us into their communications network. Hmm, I bet if I take this back to the base, we could hack into the network, and then use this code. Heh, leave it to the enemy to leave a reminder note here."

Sonic and Knuckles raced down the stairs to rejoin the team, and the rest gathered together, though they still had to fight back the Zox that kept coming towards them.

"What do we do now? Just run?"

"No! They'll be able to track us that way!" Mario answered. To the right of them was a row of parked CDs, with apparently no one on them. "Time to swipe a CD!" It was a crazy idea, but so was invading a Zox base, so they ran towards the CDs.


	16. Chapter 7: The Search for Power Part 2

A/N: Well, the RP started off nicely, but then less and less people came, and with this many characters, it really can't run well when only one or two other people even participate, so I ended it. Part of this is from the RP, but the last part of it is me, and the so will the rest. I will now finish up the story by myself.

* * *

There were ten CDs parked out in the open, but only one of them had the ramp down. As the heroes ran towards it, the Starfox team held their blasters at the ready to make sure they got in.

More Zox were coming from the hangers up ahead, but Falco and Slippy kept a close eye on them. The air was peppered with lasers, and beginning to smell of burns, but they held their own. As Fox turned to look behind him, he found a large muscular Zox leaning over him. Acting on instinct, he fired his blaster into the gut of the Zox. As he leaned over and flinched in pain, Fox took this chance to do a spin hook kick nailing the Zox in the face and knocking him unconscious to the floor.

As they neared the CD, a Zox walked down the ramp, and was surprised when he saw the enemy running towards him. Samus took this to her advantage, and fired, the impact knocking the Zox clear off the ramp. Mario ran up the ramp, with the others close behind. As Ash was about to go inside, Pidgeot flew down with Jazz. D.K. picked up Jazz off of its back, and Ash put him back inside the Pokeball.

When the others went inside, Starfox followed behind. Fox ran up the ramp backwards, keeping an eye on the pursuing Zox. Once he made it inside, Slippy pressed a button near the door, and it slid closed as the ramp was retracted.

Inside was a circular hallway, which probably circled the whole ship, but it was the bridge they wanted to reach. Sonic was on one before, so he led the way to it.

"You guys, I'm sensing others on board." Krystal said as they ran down the hall.

"How many?"

"It's only a few, probably a night shift guard." Sonic led them down the hall, and then took a right as the hallway branched off. Just as they turned the corner though, they came across a guard. Using his quick reflexes, Sonic jumped and kicked him square in the head, knocking him to the floor.

With the sound of a fight, another guard came running. Ash noticed him as he came into view in the circular hallway, and quickly gave the order.

"Pikachu, over there!" Pikachu, while sitting on Ash's shoulder, sent a bolt of electricity directly to the Zox. He jerked around from the voltages coursing through his body, and then fell limp on the ground.

They made it to the bridge without coming across more Zox, but when they looked at the controls, they came to a sudden realization; they didn't know how to fly a CD.

Samus stepped up to the front of the bridge and scanned the computers. It took a while to access it, but once she did, the computers came to life.

"Well I've got it started up, but now we need to fly this thing out of here, and we're already being shot at by the soldiers outside." Having downloaded the control schematics, Samus knew how to fly it, so she sat at the pilot's chair.

"I still sense more Zox on board." Krystal said with a worried face. Both Zero and Roy then spoke simultaneously.

"Leave it to me."

"Be careful, Zero!" Zero stopped running and turned around, looking at Marina with a puzzled face. His face, though started to turn a slight red.

"Uh, yeah, sure." Zero then turned around and followed Roy, his long blonde hair being whisked around by his fast movements. Marina too then turned slightly red, unsure of why she said what she said.

As Zero was running around inside the CD searching for the Zox that remained onboard, he went into a small room only to find a surprised Zox. Zero immediately pulled out his saber and sliced downward. The guard managed to move out of the way, but fell short as his left arm was sliced off. The Zox bit his teeth as he tried to put out the pain, and aimed his rifle with the other hand right for Zero. He fired, but Zero nimbly moved to the side, and then raised the z-buster he was charging at the guard and fired. The poor creature was blasted away, and fell to the floor.

Roy walked silently around the ship trying to hear any for Zox. As he passed a door he heard the sound of footsteps coming from behind it. Sword drawn, he stood to the side and opened the door. Roy was expecting a Zox to walk out and attack, but he was unfortunately wrong. Out from the door walked a Kremling in Zox armor, holding a Zox rifle. Roy had never seen such a creature, so the only other explanation was that it was a transformed Zoramite.

"So you're one of us." Roy said. The Kremling Zoramite backed up in surprise, aiming his gun at Roy.

"What? What are you talking about?"

"You're a Zoramite, like me, transformed to something else against your will."

"No, we're not the same, because you're a trespasser, and I have orders to kill trespassers!" Roy was baffled.

"You can't be serious! It's me, Moroni, captain of the resistance! Come with me, and we can fight against these wretched Zox!" Roy pleaded. The Kremling remained pointing the gun at him, however.

"Don't kid yourself! There's no way the Zox could ever be removed from our planet. Look around you! Our home is already ruined from their presence! The only way we can find peace now is by accepting the fact that they're here. By getting rid of the people who fight against them, like you, the Zox will be more lenient to us!" The Kremling then put his finger to the trigger. Roy was deeply hurt to find such lost hope in this person, but since he was so intent on fighting him, he had no choice.

Roy covered himself with his cloak, it being strengthened with magical power. The laser hit him, but brought no harm. Roy then swung his sword at the fellow Zoramite, but he leaned back, and only made a cut in the armor. The Kremling then fired again, this time hitting Roy right in his chest armor. The blast managed to break apart part of it, revealing his skin. Roy then covered himself again with his cloak, and the Kremling slowly approached him with a sly grin.

Roy backed away from him, not wanting to be harmed, yet not wanting to harm him. He kept walking back, but then his back hit the wall, and the Kremling smiled with a vision of victory. Roy readied his sword, despite him being a brother of sorts.

Just as He was about to fire, however, a green laser blade jutted out from his stomach, and the Zoramite had the most horrid expression on his face. The blade then retreated back inside, and he fell to the floor dead, with Zero standing right behind him.

"Looked like you needed some help."

"Yeah, thanks." Roy said, not sounding quite happy.

---

The CD swerved left and right, avoiding fire from below. The radar indicated that the CDs near them were also starting up, and one of them fired, grazing the side of the CD that Samus was flying.

"Crud…." She muttered, then briefly turned around, where Link fired at the other CD using the weapons controls.

Samus turned again and began taking the CD up, away from the base, the enemy still firing at them. She made the CD go faster and faster, and faster still; it seemed that they were approaching the speed of sound. The other CDs, however, were still close behind. Link was only starting to get a hang of the controls, whereas their pursuers were professional trained. If they couldn't outrun them, then….

"No, don't think about that. Just get the ship out of here." Samus thought.

It didn't seem like they could outrun them, but to her surprise, Link got a lucky hit. One of the lasers impacted with the engine on one of the CDs, where it lost power and fell on top of the other CD, both crashing into the ground.

"At least we don't have to worry about them." Samus said, relieved. It wasn't long, however, before more CDs followed from behind.

Seeing that they were now flying over the snow wasteland, and being chased by other CDs, Mario figured now was a good time as any to open a portal.

"We're going to have to open a dimensional portal to get out of this. No matter where we fly in this, they'll be able to follow us."

"Right. Wait, open a portal to where? It's not like this CD could fit in the base." Marina questioned.

"No, which is why we need to jump in one. Samus, can you open a portal? We need one directly below us so we can jump in, and take us straight to the base."

"I think so, but I'm busy trying to keep those CDs off of us."

"Leave it to me." Ash said. He sat down at the console for the dimensional drive, but as he looked at the controls, he could see that they were different from the ones on the 64, and wasn't sure what to do.

"Uh, maybe if I.…" Ash tried pressing a button, and got a display of the planet with different numbers. He tried a number, and a dot appeared on the other side of the planet. He tried another number, and this time the dot appeared on their side of the planet. "Huh, maybe if I.…" Ash tried one more number, and the dot appeared within the crust of Mantai, where he figured the base was. "I think I got it! Samus, stop the ship!" Samus did as Ash asked, and the CD remained hovering in mid-air. Ash pressed a button, and a portal opened right below the CD.

"Good, now let's go!" Mario shouted. As they were about to run towards the exit, they could feel the ship shake from the Zox attacking them. If they didn't hurry, the ship might brake apart before they got out.

As everyone else ran towards the exit, Fox stayed behind to make sure there would be no trace of where they went. He fired his blaster at the dimensional drive console until it became swiss cheese, and then proceeded to the exit.

Mario ran towards the center of the CD, with everyone else right behind him. As they rounded the hallway, they came to the door that led out. Mario pressed the button by the door, and the door slid open. Out in front of them was the night sky, with the ground several hundred feet below them, and the black portal opening wide for them just below them. A chilly wind swept inside as the ramp extended out into the air. Normally, if they were landed, it would reach the ground for them to walk down on, but they were in the air, and it wouldn't help.

Another blast from one of the other CDs suddenly struck the ramp, blowing it apart in front of their very eyes. Mario gulped hard.

"Here goes." Mario then jumped out into the dark, falling out of sight.

"Urk!" Marina held her breath and followed down. Another laser blast came dangerously close as she fell, but luckily passed her. If one of those lasers would hit them, they would be instantly vaporized. One by one, they all jumped into the dark.

Even after everyone was out, the CDs continued to fire at the CD, until it blew apart in a fiery explosion.

---

The Zoramites woke up that morning as usual, but when some of them walked in the main area of the base, they were surprised by the room going dark, and a dimensional portal opening right in the middle of the room.

"What the? What's going on?"

"It's the Zox! They found us!" A moment later though, Mario came flying out of the portal, rolling onto the ground. Marina then came out too, followed by the rest of the team. The portal then closed, and light returned to the room.

"Knuckles, you're back! Did you get something we need?" A nearby Zoramite asked. Knuckles gave a smirk.

"Yep. Got it right here." He said holding up the small piece of paper.

"A piece of paper?"

"No, a code to access their deep space communications network. Come on, let's get started on this right away. Oh, but first, get the doc over here to take Jazz to the med lab, and help out anyone else who is injured."

"Got it." The Zoramite then ran to find the doctor, who came only a minute later and took care of Jazz, as well as the others who had some minor injuries.

"Hey Slippy, mind helping me with accessing the network?" Knuckles asked.

"No, not at all. I'm ready to go." Without delay, they went straight for the computer station, and began hacking into the Zox communications network.

The rest of the Starfox team, ignoring the minor injuries they had, came over to the computer. They were too eager to hear from ROB.

Ten minutes had passed when Roy was given the okay from the doctor, and started walking over to join the hackers.

"You know, we probably only have one shot at this. Once they learn that we stole this code they'll change it. We should heighten our security in case they find us."

"Right." Knuckles affirmed. Roy then sat down at one of the nearby consoles and started on reworking the security system.

Slippy continued to work on the computer for another five minutes, but then suddenly stopped and gave a wide smile.

"Yeah! We've got access!" At those words, more of the Zoramites gathered around the computer station. Almost everyone who lived at the base had came to watch, making for a rather large crowed.

Everyone held their breath as Knuckles entered the code, and at as the code was approved, they all gave a loud cheer. Fox's wrist communicator was connected back into the computer, and to their luck, a connection was made. "Mind doing the honors, Fox?" Slippy asked, motioning Fox to come over and speak.

Fox picked up the communicator, and hoping that someone else was on the other end, started to speak.

"ROB, are you there?"

"Yes, I can hear you. Are you okay?" ROB asked in his robotic, monotone voice.

"For the moment, yes. We've found some people to help us. Where are you? What happened?"

"I am currently hiding in a class C nebula 2.1743 light years from your position. When the Nintendo 64 was attacked, my chances of survival was less than one percent, so I fled, hoping to later make contact with you."

"Good. Come down here and send us all four Arwings and my Landmaster to these coordinates, and try to take out any surveillance equipment on your way.

"Affirmative. It will take approximately thirteen hours to reach your coordinates. The Arwings and Landmaster will be sent down in that time."

"Thirteen hours?" Mario thought out loud. "That's probably good. I could use a rest from all of this."

"Good, we'll be awaiting the Vehicles but try and transport them down here, because if you get too close the Zox will see you and find out where we are."

"Affirmative."

When Fox put down the communicator, he heard shouts of joy coming from the other Zoramites. They were cheering, for they had come one step closer to achieving freedom.

"Ha ha, this is great! All of us managed to come out of a Zox base alive, and now we're going to get some new ships! Come on, I'll have the cook prepare something nice, and then we'll rest till the Great Fox comes." Knuckles said with a smile. It was odd seeing him smile, as it was a thing that Knuckles rarely did, but then again, this wasn't the real Knuckles.

"Sounds great. It'll be nice to have a meal other than the rations we took on that trip to the base." With a job well done, the heroes went off to take a brake, but danger still loomed. Unknown to anyone, a certain spy was among them.

On Mario's back was a small, unnoticeable insect. It was a bumble bee, with blue stripes, and robotic implants. The bee adjusted its antennae, connecting with the Zox base.

angelfire.c om/music6/blackphantom/buckbumble.mp 3

"Sir Garnel, are you there?"

"Yes. You have something to report, Buck?"

"My name is Corianton, and you know that."

"I'll call you whatever I want! Now report!" Corianton, also known as Buck Bumble, swallowed his pride, and did as he was told.

"I've followed Mario as ordered, and he's brought me to the resistance base. It's at coordinates 657634-5654, 3367 feet underground."

"Excellent. Now return to base."

"Yes sir." Buck let go of the back of Mario's shirt, and started flying towards the exit. As he did, he flew past some of the Zoramites, seeing many of them in their original forms. Seeing them made him yearn for his old body.

"Man, why did I have to get stuck with this body? The Zox forced me to take the form of a human, and that wouldn't have been too bad, but why did that stupid bee have to fly right in front of my hand as I was about to take his body? Now I'm a stupid bee, just because some bug named Buck got in the way." Corianton let out a heavy sigh. "Life sucks."

He came up to the door that led out, and waited there. Once the door opened, and one of the Zoramites walked in, he took his chance and flew out. No one knew he came, and no one knew he left.

---

General Grenal put down the communicator, and smiled widely. He then turned around in his chair, and looked at the slender Zox that stood beside him.

"Heh heh. It seems everything is going according to plan, sir Sandfire. Just as you said, the warriors from dimension N would try to attack one of our military bases. 'Let them escape and have Buck follow them to the base;' you certainly are the War Master."

"Of course. It's amazing really how just the faintest hope of a reward will keep the Zoramite slaves working for us without any confrontation. As soon as Buck returns, you know what to do."

"Yes sir. We'll release the beast, and he'll squash the base. They'll never know what hit them."

---

"Come back here, you coward!" Mario ran faster and faster, but Bowser was getting further away.

"Mario, help me!" Peach yelled. She fought against Bowser's grasp, but couldn't manage to brake free.

"Ha ha ha! You'll never beat me, Mario!" Bowser then suddenly stopped and faced Mario. He then leaned forward and shot out a ball of flame, making a loud blaring sound as he spit it out. Mario rolled to the left, but Bowser fired again, the fireball making another loud blaring sound. Bowser kept it up at a steady pace, firing the balls at two second intervals.

Mario dodged another fireball, then ran up towards Bowser, but the Koopa King grabbed hold of him, and shook him furiously, while still firing the loud balls.

"Wake up, Mario, wake up!" Bowser yelled in his deep, angry voice. He continued to shake him, until everything around him changed, and Bowser shifted into Link.

"Mario, wake up already!" Mario shook his head, and sat up from the makeshift bed. He rubbed his eyes to get a better look at things, but his ears started to notice something. The same blaring sound that was in his dream was happening right now, and it was distinctly an alarm.

"What's going on?" Mario asked half awake.

"We're going to be attacked, that's what's going on! Now get up!" Mario didn't need to hear anymore. He jumped up to his feet, now fully awake. Link ran on ahead, and Mario followed. They ran past the bedrooms and into the main area, where Zoramites were running to and fro. The rest of Mario's team was huddled around the computer station, intently looking at something. Mario dodged his way past the running Zoramites, and squeezed through the crowd. Once he made it there, he saw that they were all looking at the monitor, which showed something quite troublesome.

"What the heck is that thing?"

"They actually released that thing? They couldn't have…." Roy said, staring at the screen, memorized by the creature that walked towards them.

"You know what it is?" Mario asked.

"Sadly, yes. Four years ago, the Zox found a dimension that had a planet inhabited by humans, and on it they found that creature. The people there called it Godzilla."

"So they captured that thing and brought it here?"

"No, not quite. Godzilla was actually too strong for the Zox to tame, so they had a Zoramite transform into it. They then brought it here for the time, but Godzilla's mind was too much for him, and he was soon corrupted by it, turning into that very beast. They then kept it locked up underground, but it seems now they've unleashed him."

"And he's heading right for us!"

"But how could they have found us?" D.K. asked.

"I have no idea!" Knuckles yelled as he slammed his fist against the console.

"Fox, are the Arwings here yet?"

"No, but they should be in a few minutes."

"Captain Roy, what should we do?" One of the Zoramites asked.

"I really don't know. It's possible it will pass us. I mean, I don't see how they could have found out where we are."

"But what if it does attack us?"

"Then we pray for a miracle." The group watched uneasily, as the beast continued to walk closer to them. A few minutes later though, Link started to feel something. It was faint feeling, and it happened every so often, but each time it felt more significant. Everyone else noticed it too now, and they could tell now that it was the ground shaking. With each step Godzilla took, the floor shook. It was getting harder and harder, and louder and louder, and now, with each step he took, something around them shook.

The floor shook again, and this time, the whole room was visibly shaking. When the room shook again, one of the monitors wobbled off its station, and fell to the floor, the glass shattering into pieces. Everyone was now thoroughly shaken up.

"ROB, how much longer?" Fox yelled into his wrist communicator. It was back on his arm, as the Great Fox was now close enough that they didn't need the computer.

"Two minutes and forty-five seconds."

"All right guys, let's go! They'll be here soon!"

"Wait, you're not actually going to fight that thing, are you?" Knuckles asked as he grabbed Fox's arm.

"Of course! You see any better option?" Knuckles was about to say something to stop him, but he knew that Fox was right. He closed his eyes, and then let go of his arm. The rest of the team could only stand there as Starfox headed off to fight Godzilla.

"We could really use the 64 right about now." Ash said solemnly.

"If only."

---

It was daylight now on this side Mantai, with only a slight snowfall. Fox, Falco, Slippy, and Krystal came running out of the hologram wall and out into the snowy forest. They continued to run, moving through the forest to find a clear spot for the Arwings to be transported.

"Sending vehicles now." ROB said from Fox's communicator. They looked around them for it, looking beyond the trees, when they saw a flash of light to the northwest of them. They ran towards them with all speed, the earth shakings reminding them of the danger. They found the Arwings and Landmaster in a clear spot, and didn't waste any time getting in.

"Are you sure you'll be okay in that, Fox?" Krystal asked as she hoped in her Arwing.

"Don't worry. I'll try to stay out of sight. Besides, it might be advantageous to have someone on the ground." With the cockpits closed over the pilots, the Arwings started up. The engines hummed to life, and the thrusters glowed blue. The three ships then vertically took off, flying above the tree line.

As Falco went above the forest, he could see the small mountain that the base resided under, and just beyond it was the beast. The giant lizard made the hill look like a chair, even though he was slightly blurred by the snow from the distance he stood at.

"Certainly feels good to be back in my Arwing." Falco commented.

"I know. But we have a job to do, so let's concentrate here." Krystal said. Once the three Arwings had flown to maximum height though, they were spotted. Godzilla stopped its steady march, and seemed to look straight at them.

"Uh, Fox, what should we do?" Slippy asked nervously.

"Hold your ground." The monster then let out a ferocious roar, one that could be heard several miles away, sending a chill colder than the snow down everyone's spine. It even caused a few small avalanches on the mountain. Godzilla then began to charge, right towards the Starfox team.

They had fought armadas, and they had thought against large ships, but Godzilla wasn't a pushover. They would need every bit of luck they could get. Without the Nintendo 64, their future was still as cold as Mantai.

* * *

A/N: Okay, I know, Godzilla is kind of...off, but I wanted a giant monster for this, and Godzilla _was_ in a video game, so please forgive me. 


	17. Chapter 7: The Search for Power Part 3

"He's all mine!" Falco shouted. He put the thrusters to full force, and the Arwing shot off towards the enemy. As soon as he was in range, he pressed the trigger as fast as he could, unleashing a furry of lasers.

The lasers flew right towards Godzilla's head, and as they struck, they seemed to merely disappear, not leaving a scratch on him.

"What? You gotta be kidding me!" Trying a different approach, Falco fired a nova bomb. The burning ball hit the beast square on the head, and the force managed to knock his head to the side.

The ground shook again as Godzilla stomped around, trying to find his balance. Once he did though, he turned to face Falco, who was now quite close. As the front of his face was shown to Falco, he could see that the bomb only gave him a severe burn on the forehead, and now he looked quite angry.

Godzilla opened his mouth, and as Falco was getting close, he pulled up. Just as Godzilla had opened his mouth though, an immense beam of energy shot out. It just missed Falco as he pulled up, and away from the creature.

"Jeez, that thing will fry me for sure!"

"Starfox, I just remembered something important to tell you!" Knuckles said to the team through the communication channel.

"Godzilla is able to fire an energy beam out of his mouth, so be careful."

"Great, now he tells me."

"Falco, stop playing around! Get into formation and strike together!" Fox ordered.

"Right." Slippy and Krystal came up to Falco, and flew in a triangle formation, getting ready for another approach.

"It looks like nova bombs are our best bet, so hit him all at once on the head."

"Sounds good, Fox." The three flew towards Godzilla, waiting for a clear shot. As they neared him again though, Godzilla fired another beam. They were ready for it this time, so the three of them split in opposite directions as the beam flew right past them. They then went back into their triangle formation, and locked onto the target.

"Ready? Fi.…" Just as Falco gave the command, Godzilla's sharp claws came crashing down on them. It came so fast that they hardly had time to avoid it, and two of the claws sliced the wings right off of Krystal's ship. They had already fired the bombs though, and Krystal's ended up hitting the beast's torso, making little damage, while Falco's hit the forehead again. Slippy's bomb, however, managed to land right in the right eye, and the poor Zoramite winced in pain. He put his paw over his eye, roaring in agony.

"Krystal, are you okay?" Fox asked, quite concerned.

"Not really. My Arwing is holding, but its much harder to fly now."

"Please, hold in there, Krystal!"

"Don't worry about me. It's everyone else we should worry about if we fail here." Once Godzilla got over his little fit, he let go of his face, unable to open his right eye. At least now he was partially blind.

"Dang, I'm out of bombs. You guys have anymore?" Falco asked.

"I'm out too."

"I have just one left." Slippy replied. "But I don't think that's going to make much of a difference."

"Try to go for the other eye!"

"Okay, but I'll need a clear shot."

"Leave that to me." Falco turned his ship around and started firing at the monster. His lasers didn't do much to his thick skin, but at least he had his full attention now. Godzilla roared in anger and took a swing at him, but Falco did a barrel roll to the right, avoiding the claw. To keep his attention away from Slippy, Falco flew in low to keep his head looking downward.

With Falco keeping Godzilla occupied, Slippy flew in for the final shot, hoping to completely blind him. While he was swatting at Falco, Slippy took aim, and fired. As the bomb went straight for his head, something unexpected happened.

Falco was quite close to the giant monster now, so the monster made a different attack. Godzilla turned his body around, and as he did, his head turned away from the bomb, and it harmlessly passed him into the distance. As the back was turned to Falco, his long tail was whipped around, and came straight for Falco.

Falco saw the tail swing for him, and he only had a mere second to respond. Falco pulled the ship upward, but as the tail came swinging at him, the back of the Arwing was hit. The Arwing was hit like a mere fly, sent spinning through the air.

After a heavy, sudden jerk from the collision, Falco was spinning around and around. The world outside of his cockpit was swirling around him, and he was soon feeling sick. Falco tried pulling on the control stick, but the ship wouldn't respond. He took a glance at his ship's status screen, and saw why: all that was left of his ship was the cockpit he sat in; the engine and wings had been whacked off.

It was hard to see out of the ship with everything spinning around so fast, but he could see that he was getting close to the ground. With no other option left, he slammed his fist down on the emergency ejection button. In less than a second, his seat slipped on a breathing mask, the cover of the cockpit shot open, and he was blasted out in his seat.

Luckily, he was ejected when he was faced upward, and was shot into the air. After a few seconds of being thrown around through the air, his seat opened a parachute, which the seatbelt held on, and the seat fell to the ground. Now that he was falling to the ground, and already lost his lunch, he could see Godzilla, and Godzilla was looking at him.

The monster swung around again, and the massive tail was coming for him again. Falco's eyes widened in terror as it came closer and closer, horrified by the fact that there was nothing he could do this time. Falco closed his eyes, not wanting to see his doom.

He kept them closed, and when he figured the tail would hit him, he no longer heard the wind or the sound of the fight. He no longer felt the cold of the planet, and surprisingly, never felt the sting of death. Strangely though, he heard the faint hum of an engine, and the beeps whirs of electronic devices, and he felt that he was sitting down. He slowly opened his eyes, and the parachute fell on top of him, covering him.

"Am I…dead?"

"My sensors indicate that you are still very much alive, though you do have some injuries." A monotone voice said. Falco threw the parachute off of him, and saw that he was on board the Great Fox, inside the control room.

"ROB? What…."

"I felt that it was necessary to pull you out of battle, so I transported you here."

"Oh, thank goodness!" Falco stood up off of the metal floor, and ran up to hug the mechanical savior. "Thank you, ROB!"

"This is quite unnecessary. I am only doing what is needed to keep Starfox from harm." ROB said, seeming uneasy. Falco then backed off, he himself feeling odd that he just hugged a big piece of equipment.

"Uh, yeah, well, thanks."

---

"ROB, did you just transport Falco?" Krystal asked, worry cracking her voice. She was horrified when Godzilla's tail was about to hit him, but when he seemed to just disappear rather than be swatted, she wondered if he was transported.

"Yes. He is safe on the Great Fox."

"Good." Krystal and Slippy said, both sighing with relief. Her sigh did not last long though, as a claw was coming right down on her. She dived down to the right and managed to avoid it, but the possessed Zoramite was already clawing at her again.

"Krystal, look out!" Slippy shouted. He fired his lasers at the monster, but Godzilla didn't even pay attention to them. Krystal's ship was about to sliced right down the middle, but a charged laser blast shot out from the snow-covered forest, and hit Godzilla right in the crotch. With a loud roar, Godzilla bent down, frozen in sheer pain.

"Sorry I didn't help earlier;" Fox said, "I couldn't get here as fast in the Landmaster."

"Heh, thanks Fox." As Godzilla started to get over the pain, he suddenly opened his mouth and looked towards the ground where the blast came from, and fired his energy beam. The beam struck the ground with powerful force, blowing away dirt and snow, as well as trees. He then moved the beam around in a chaotic manner, hoping to get it wherever it was. When he finally stopped, he yelled in anger, and looked at the two ships with his one good eye.

"Fox, are you okay? Respond!"

"I'm all right. He missed, but just barely." Fox fired a charged laser blast from his Landmaster again, but Godzilla saw it this time, and stepped to the left to avoid it. Knowing that he was still down there somewhere, he started trampling and kicking the ground.

---

"They're not getting anywhere! We have to do something!" Sonic yelled while looking at the video screen.

"I know, but just what do you expect us to do? Even my super missiles would do little to that thing." Samus mentioned. As Ash looked at the monster, all he could comprehend was how much larger it was.

"And he's so big, his ears would probably look like caves to us!"

"Ears…wait a minute." Sonic said, deep in thought. "Link, do you have any bombs on you?"

"Yes, I do."

"How many?"

"Ten."

"Can I have eight?" Link looked at Sonic, and by listening to the conversation, he had an idea of what he was planning.

"Yeah, sure."

"Hey Jazz, come here! You feel like going for a run?" Sonic asked. Jazz was puzzled by the thought of _going out for a run_, but seeing him take Link's bombs by the armful gave him the impression of a plan.

"Sure, I'm game." Sonic handed four of the bombs to Jazz, so he and Sonic both had four.

---

A white blur was all that they saw as Jazz and Sonic dashed through the snowy forest. The blue hedgehog and the green rabbit ran together towards the enemy, bombs in hands. Sonic knew that Jazz was fast, but he was rather impressed that he could keep up the same speed as himself. Jazz's floppy ears waved like flags in a strong wind, kind of like his quills. Seeing the excited expression on his face was like looking in the mirror, and Sonic began to wonder if Jazz might actually be his alternate self from dimension D.

"So we run up Godzilla, go inside his ears, and place these bombs!" Jazz said, going over the plan.

"Right! You ever run up a vertical surface?" Sonic yelled back. With the loud noise of the air rushing past them, they had to raise their voices to hear each other.

"No, actually!"

"The key is to get enough momentum so that when you start running upwards, the force will keep you held against the vertical surface, so when the time comes, start running as fast as you can!" At the speed they traveled, it only took them seventeen seconds more to reach Godzilla. At the same time, both Sonic and Jazz gave it their all, and ran to their full potential, leaving behind them a blurred green and blue trail. Sonic was starting to go faster than Jazz, but that was only because Jazz's foot bothered him somewhat from the injury he got when invading the base.

Sonic and Jazz went their separate ways, as Jazz went up the left leg, and Sonic went up the right one. They ran up the foot in the blink of an eye, and once they went up the leg, the force of their momentum kept them against the leg, their strong legs keeping them standing. They continued running upward, past the waist, past the chest, and up towards the head.

It wasn't until they made it inside Godzilla's ears that he tried to shake them off. Since the Arwing's lasers did little to him, perhaps he couldn't even feel them. The inside of his ear had soft tissue, so now he was fully aware of something on him. He shook his head left and right, but Sonic and Jazz managed to hang inside.

"Yuck, this is disgusting!" Sonic said as his body was thrown around in the earwax-filled ear. Ash's initial figure fell short, as the ear was more like a crawl space for someone the size of a Zox. Sonic could see the ear drum though, so he lit the bombs, tossed them down, and scrambled out.

Sonic tried to run out, but with Godzilla moving around so much, he was thrown out, and began falling for the ground. He was high up, higher then when he took down a CD in Johto; all he saw below him was squashed snow and trees. The snow might cushion his fall, but since it was packed down, it was unlikely. Sonic couldn't see a way out of this, but Sonic was always an optimist, and wasn't expecting death.

And his expectation was fulfilled. Slippy saw Sonic, and swooped down to catch him. Sonic landed on top of the Arwing with only a small impact, as the ship was going down as well. Sonic looked at Slippy and gave him a thumbs up as a way of saying thanks, and Slippy did likewise. He looked back up at Godzilla when he made another one of his loud roars, and saw that he was holding his head by his ears. His eyes were twitching, and he continued to hold his head.

As Sonic stood on top of Slippy's ship, Krystal came over and flew beside him in her ship, which Jazz stood on top of. They smiled at each other, feeling good of having accomplished something. Slippy and Krystal then flew in low so they could hop off.

When Godzilla finally got over the pain, his anger was enlarged. As he slowly took down his hands, he looked angrily through his one good eye, while blood dripped from his ears. He appeared to be in a mess, but he also appeared to be as angry as heck. poor Zoramite let out a horrible roar, louder then ever before. The very planet itself seemed to shake with fear from this horrible monster. Even if he was partially blind and now deaf, he was still a force to be reckoned with.

Another blast shot out from the ground, this time hitting the right side of his hip. Godzilla then lifted his foot, and slammed it down with powerful force. The very ground shattered from the force, sending shockwaves of dirt like ripples in a pond. The wave of dirt came for Fox, and hit him head on. Fox was hit hard, and started to tumble, but quickly came to a sudden stop with everything upside down. His view screen was completely black, and when he checked the sensors, he saw that he was now buried under several feet of mantai.

Godzilla then charged towards one of the small ships. As soon as he came up to one, he swung his claw down at it. He missed, but quickly swung his other claw across, tearing the front end off. As it began to fall, he slammed both his claws against each other on it. Just as he did though, a tiny life form popped out from it. Godzilla moved his claws away from each other, and the small chunks of metal between them fell to the floor. He then tried to swat at the life form, but it vanished before his eyes.

With no one else left, Godzilla looked straight at Krystal. Her teammates were gone, and her wings were damaged. Even if she managed to blind the other eye, he could still kill them all. It didn't look like she stood any chance, so she turned the ship around and started to fly away. Perhaps if they regrouped, they could think of something else.

Just as she started to fly away though, Godzilla opened his mouth. Krystal was trying to fly away from him, and since she had no way of looking behind her, and the radar only giving positions of enemy fighters, she didn't see that Godzilla was about to fire an energy beam at her. She had made a fatal mistake, and her fate was already set. Starfox would loose three Arwings and a vixen.

Godzilla looked straight at the ship with his mouth opened, and conjured up the energy to fire at it. He felt the energy pulse through his body, and up his throat. Just as it came to his mouth, though, he felt a sudden pain strike his right side. With the sudden force that struck him, the giant Zoramite fell to the ground as the energy beam shot out. Since his head moved, the beam flew was off target, and missed Krystal by several hundred feet. It seemed that something else intervened with fate.

As Godzilla laid on the floor, the thing that struck him made itself evident, and what it was made everyone gasp in awe and pure joy. there, before their very eyes, the Nintendo 64 was reappearing, coming out of stealth mode. For a moment, many of them thought they were dreaming. The very thing that they had been searching for for days had come to them. This wasn't a dream though, the Nintendo 64 was really there, and it had saved them.

While the heroes stood in awe at the screen inside the base, one of the computers started beeping. Knuckles reached over and pressed a button, and one of the monitors showed professor Theo.

"Hey there! Long time no see!"

"Professor! You _are_ alive!" Marina shouted with joy.

"Of course! Sorry I wasn't here sooner; there was a lot of damage for the repair bots to fix, and I had trouble trying to fly this thing over here." For a moment, they had forgotten all about Godzilla, who was still very much alive. As he stood up, he glared at the 64, and got ready to pound it.

"Theo, Godzilla is back up!"

"Uh, what do I do? There isn't enough time to just pick you guys up!"

"Theo, listen to us carefully, and we'll tell you what to do." Link said. "First, simultaneously press the four buttons that are in a square pattern on the console that I control." Theo did as he was told, and pressed the buttons. There was a bright flash of light, and the 64 became enveloped in it. Two seconds later, it disappeared, and the 64 was in robot mode. The 64 was shorter than Godzilla, its head only reaching his chest. This made Godzilla feel more confident, but size isn't everything.

"Now, go to the weapons control." Zero said. He then told Theo what to do to use the weapons. Since another person was needed to move the 64, he would have to fight while standing still, but that wasn't really a problem.

Godzilla opened his mouth to fire an energy beam, but the 64 raised its hands and created an energy shield. The beam bounced off of the shield like water, and Godzilla stopped, stunned that it didn't work.

The 64 then raised its right hand, and faced the palm towards the monster. A laser shot out from the palm, and struck him in the chest. Godzilla was knocked back, and when he regained his ground, they could see that his chest was severely bleeding. Godzilla then started to charge for the 64, his fist cocked back and ready to slam the machine.

"Now, put him out of his misery!" The 64 faced both palms out at the monster as they charged up energy. As Godzilla was about to punch him, Theo fired the beam, and it shot out from the palms right for his head, completely covering it. As soon as the poor Zoramite was hit, he froze in place. When the beam finally finished and passed him, there was no head to be seen; it has been completely fired away. The lifeless body of Godzilla then fell limb, and crashed to the ground, shaking the planet one final time.

---

The 64 came to a landing just outside the Zoramite resistance base, and everyone rushed out to greet Theo. When the 64 came to a complete stop, the ramp opened up a minute later. Theo walked down the ramp proudly, trying to make himself look heroic, though the fat belly and dirty clothes didn't help.

"Professor!" Marina shouted as she ran up to give Theo a big hug. "I'm so glad you're alive!"

"Of course I am!"

"I have to hand it to you; we'd all be dead if you didn't come and save us." Link said. A sly grin then beamed on Theo's face.

"Why, yes! Thanks to my piloting skills, I was able to single-handedly take down that monster!" Marina's face then quickly changed from joy to anger. Then, with one swift grab, Marina tossed Theo across the ramp and face-first into the snow.

"Stop gloating! Sheesh, you never change." Everyone looked at Marina and Theo with stunned lips. Theo popped his head out of the snow, and shivered from the cold.

"Uh, are you okay?" Samus asked. Theo then smiled.

"Oh, sure. I'm used to Marina tossing me around.

"Uh, okay."

After their greeting, they all headed back into the base, where they planned their next move. Since the Zox apparently knew where they were, it was pointless to put the ship in stealth mode, so they just left it there. They did, however, leave Zero and Mario there in case they were attacked. Once they dug Fox out, ROB transported the rest of the Starfox team and the busted vehicles to the Great Fox.

The heroes from dimension N, D, and the Zoramite resistance was gathered around the computer station, and with a communication channel opened to the Great Fox and the 64, they talked amongst themselves, figuring out where they went from here. With the Nintendo 64 back in their hands, they had the power they needed, but liberating Mantai would take more than just blowing up a bunch Zox military bases.

"So we have the 64 parked outside and the Great Fox in orbit, neither of which have been attacked yet. Either the Zox are planning something of their own or they're waiting for the right time to strike." Link said.

"Yes, perhaps so. I imagined that the Great Fox would have been shot down as soon as it neared Mantai. Still, the longer it hangs around, the more danger they're in." Roy commented. Link then turned to the video screen and asked the obvious question.

"Fox, how long will it be until you get your ships repaired?"

"You're joking, right? We only have one good Arwing, one without wings, and two are completely scrapped. It'll take a full week to rebuild just one of them. The only thing we have is the Great Fox's cannons, but they won't be of much help if we're ganged up on."

"So we just have the 64 then." Mario said. "Fox, I think it might be a good idea for you guys to leave orbit and find safety. You'll be in big trouble if for some reason we won't be able to help you in an attack." Fox then drooped his head and sighed.

"I hate to admit it, but I think you're right."

"What? Oh, come on! You're saying you want us to flee?" Falco yelled from the background.

"Don't get uptight Falco. Without your Arwing, you can't do anything anyways." Falco merely grumbled to Fox's comment. "Well, I guess we'll see you latter then. We'll head back to the nebula to hide while we work on our ships."

"Good luck, then."

"You too." With that, the video screen for the Great Fox went blank.

"So then, now we just need to figure out our plan of attack." Link said. D.K. then said his opinion straight up.

"We blow up all of the bases! What do you need a plan for?"

"Those bases contain my people! We can't just senselessly blow stuff up!" Knuckles shouted.

"Not to mention the problem with the social order." Roy began. "The Zox have been here for a long time, and as you can see, some of my people are willing to accept that and follow their orders. If we're going to have them willing to overthrow the Zox, then we need to reestablish Zoramite rule."

"And how do we do that?"

"We need to…return the king to the throne." Roy said uneasily.

"So you were ruled by a king?"

"Yes. We were a simple people before the Zox came, and we were ruled by a benevolent king."

"So who and where is he?" Zero asked. Roy again became uneasy.

"He is King Nephi…my father." Many of the heroes became shocked.

"Then that makes you the prince!" Ash said out loud.

"King, actually. My father was killed shortly after the Zox invaded Mantai. I was just a kid when I had to watch him be lined up with others in a firing squad. After several years of growing up in a cell, the Zox sent me to take the place of Roy to gather information for the invasion of dimension N. I was then kept in the military as a soldier, but when we were attacked by the resistance, led by Knuckles here, I turned against them, and joined the resistance. So now I'm a captain of the resistance, and a King without a kingdom."

"This might actually work." Samus said, starring out into space.

"What might work?"

"Think about it: We tell the world that Roy here is alive and well, that he proclaims himself to be the rightful heir to the throne, and that he seeks the liberation of his people with the Nintendo 64 to back him up. The rest of the Zoramites might be willing to fight and flee when we come to attack the Zox installations." Knuckles then looked to Roy and smiled.

"I think that just might work."

"Perhaps, but I know nothing of ruling a world."

"Don't worry about that." Mario said. "If you can lead an army, then you'll be able to get some things straight. Zero, can we transmit a communication to several hundred locations at once?"

"To how many alternate dimensions?"

"Heh, I'll take that as a yes."

---

A metal wall was on all four sides, enclosing a square area of only twenty feet. The room was bare, except for a sink and a dimensional toilet, where the waste would fall into a small portal and deposited into space. This room was one of many inside the housing complex. It held the Zoramites, and it wasn't pleasant. There was only a central diffusion heating system, and it wasn't much to keep the steel floor warm with the cold snow on the other side of the wall.

In this one room were two families, each having four children, and one mother. Sariah was the only one awake at this late of night, and it would always pain her to see her children lay down on the chilling floor, being only provided with one small blanket, which they always used as a bed instead. Their thin, ragged clothes didn't help either. They were allowed to go outside and walk around within the confines of the fenced area, but if you knew what was good for you, you'd stay inside.

As she sat there like every night, the routine warning was given from video screen in the courtyard.

"Ten minutes until curfew. Any Zoramite found outside past curfew will be shot on sight." Sariah leaned back against the cold wall, her eyelids becoming heavy.

"My brothers and sisters, please hear my call!" Sariah jolted up, fully awake. Something about this night wasn't routine.

"My name is Moroni, son of King Nephi, and Captain of the Resistance."

"Is that a video broadcast? Rebekah, children, wake up!"

"For too long have we lived under the control of the Zox, for too long have we lived as their servants. This world was ours, and shall _be_ ours." One by one, room by room, people were waking up, and listening to the sudden event.

"Now is the time that we take back Mantai, and evict the Zox from our home. Yes, we have tried this many times before, but this time we have the means to do so." Everyone was now thoroughly paying attention.

"You have heard of the warriors from dimension N, the ones who defeated the War Master Karlnak? They are also the ones who pierced the defenses of Compet. No, it is not a rumor, they indeed have invade Compet. These warriors have come to our aide, and are willing to help us to rid of the Zox once and for all. Hope is not lost. As an heir to the throne, I can establish order, and once again return this world to the way it was."

A Zoramite crept out of his room to enter the courtyard. The snow was making his feet go numb, but he didn't care. He moved through the shadows to look at the video screen, to behold the one who cried rebellion.

"Brothers and sisters, let go of your fear, and flee the Zox! Go into the wilderness, so that when the hand of justice comes to punish the Zox, you will not be there to feel its wrath! The day of eviction has come!" A Zox soldier stood under the tower that held the video screen, quite troubled. Footsteps were heard running in the snow, and when he turned around, he found another Zox come towards him.

"What are you doing? Shut it off!"

"I can't!"

"Argh!" The Zox then took out his rifle and shot screen. The visual stopped, but there was still sound. He then fired madly at the top of the tower until the screen was riddled with holes, and the whole thing came crashing down. "I just got word that this thing is playing all over the planet!"

"Then…" The other Zox stopped his sentence when he noticed someone in the shadows. "Hey, you there! Get back to your cell!" Then, to the soldier's fear, the figure didn't back down, but instead boldly walked towards him. "I said get back!"

The soldier raised his rifle, but then he heard another pair of footsteps. He turned around and saw another Zoramite walking towards him. Then he heard another, and another. Soon he and his fellow soldier was surrounded by what seemed like every Zoramite in the complex. A battle cry was heard, and the rest joined in.

Under normal circumstances, two soldiers were all that were needed to guard a single housing complex. Under normal circumstances, only one Zoramite a month would ever try to flee. When the two Zox were faced by the gang, they didn't stand a chance.

The message was delivered, and many received.


	18. Chapter 8: Freedom Calls Part 1

**Chapter 8**

****

Freedom Calls

(Replace hyphens with underlines)

ocremix.or g/songs/Mega-Man-2-Wily-Meets-Flashman-OC-ReMix.m p3

The heroes, finally back inside the Nintendo 64, sat at their consoles, getting the ship to once again go to battle. Mario still had a promise to keep, and he intended on keeping it.

"Sonic, any sign of the enemy in the area?" Mario asked.

"None."

"Link?"

"All systems are good."

"All right then, let's save the world." As the 64 began to lift into the air, the Zoramites outside waved goodbye. Knuckles gave a salute to the ones inside the ship, and Mario returned the salute, as did Roy. Seeing as how they were going to try to return Mantai to the Zoramites, Roy felt that he was needed on the 64, at the battle scene, even if he didn't play a role in the battle.

As the 64 rose up to the sky and into the thick storm clouds, Link activated the stealth mode, and they disappeared from enemy sight. Mario then put it into full speed, and they rocketed forward, leaving behind a sonic boom.

"So this is the ship that invaded Compet?" Roy asked rhetorically. "It's certainly something."

"Yes. If something's going to stop the Zox, it's this." Roy walked up to the main controls, taking a gander. He then looked at the view screen showing the ground below. As he looked at the ground rush past them, he saw for a brief moment a large group of figures on the ground.

"That looked like Zoramites." Samus said, having also noticed it.

"But isn't that just a frozen wilderness down there?" Ash asked. Roy then smiled.

"Yes, it is. I think those are some people who have escaped the Zox."

"Will they survive for long out there?"

"We have adapted to this world to survive the cold, but no, they won't survive for too long in the wilderness. That is why we must hurry; they are counting on us to expel the Zox.

"Then let's not keep them waiting." Mario said. "We're coming up on the first target. Link, time to switch."

"Got it." Link pressed the buttons, and a bright white light filled the whole room. Three seconds later, it vanished, and they were now in robot mode.

Below the clouds, and a few miles ahead, laid the first target: the satellite control tower. It was a tall tower that stretched two miles into the sky, like a giant needle. It was the main control center for keeping an eye on the planet with the satellites.

The 64 went out of stealth mode, raised its right hand, and pointed its finger towards the tower. Within seconds, a massive amount of energy was gathered, and then focused at the tip of the finger. Zero then fired, and a beam the size of the 64's fist rocketed away towards the tower. With incredible speed, it went right for the base of the tower, and exploded on contact. Like a falling tree, the tower came crashing down.

---

"War Master, I have just received word that the satellite control tower has just been destroyed!" General Garnel excalimed, worry painted on his face. Sandfire, however, remained calm as ever.

"Then it seems that the battle for Mantai has begun. The ships are ready for launch, and awaiting your command." Sandfire started to walk for the door, but stopped and turned back to the General. "You know how valuable the Zoramites are to the Empire, don't let me do down."

"Sir, you're leaving?"

"Yes, I'm returning to Compet. My new ship is nearing completion, and I want to witness it personally." Sandfire then turned back to the door, and walked away.

As Sandfire walked down the hall, he thought to himself.

"Of course, what I really want is to be away from here when Mantai falls. I hate to loose it, but given the 64's track record, I doubt Garnel will stand a chance. Only my new ship will be able to get rid of those pesky warriors once and for all. I can always take back Mantai when I do, after all."

---

The next target was a base with an armada of CDs. It was built on a large, frozen lake. With the smooth ice, they were able to make a large landing area, and a few hundred CDs were stationed there.

The 64 went out of stealth mode, and raised its hands to the sky. Right above them, a small ball of energy was formed, and it rapidly grew in size. Right below them at the base, the Zox took notice, and some of the CDs started to take off. The angel of death was right above them.

The energy ball was becoming massive, and soon became the size of a stadium. Bolts of electricity coursed through the white ball of pure energy, making it unstable. With the ball now at the appropriate size, the 64 threw its hands down towards the base, and the ball followed.

Eleven CDs were now in the air going towards the 64, but it was already too late. The energy ball came right towards them, and because they were so small compared to it, they simply disintegrated at the touch of it. The ball continued to fly down, and as soon as it collided with the ground, the unstable ball exploded, and the entire area was lit up in pure white. The explosion could be seen miles away, the horizon itself seeming to be on fire. Three times as powerful as an atomic explosion, the explosion extended into the sky, witnessing to the Zox the power of the 64.

"That should take care of them." Roy said, smiling. He knew he shouldn't delight in death, but the thought of finally defeating the Zox was quite strong.

As the light from the blast finally died down, and the view screen filtered out the smoke and debris, they could see that what was once the base was now a crater almost as big as Hyrule. The frozen lake that was once there had now become steam, rising into the atmosphere. It was quite a scene of desolation, but Mario knew they had to move on.

"We should head to the next target now." Just as Mario was about head on though, five lights appeared on Sonic's screen, beeping loudly.

"What is it?"

"Five portals are opening just out of orbit."

"I guess they finally decided to attack." Mario said. "All right, we're going to have to deal with this. It'll probably just be another large fleet of CDs, so it shouldn't be too…."

"Mario! They're not CDs!"

"What? What do you mean?"

"It's those smaller ships, the ones that we found at Diamondous!"

"Oh, great. We barely survived the last attack. How many are there?"

"I don't know, they're still coming out of the portals, but it's fifty and climbing."

"Well, we're stronger now, so hopefully we'll be able to take them." The 64's jets increased power, and they shot into the sky. As they reached the upper layers of the atmosphere, outer space could be seen more clearly, and the ships came into closer view. More and more were coming out of the swirling portals, and lining up, preparing to attack. As they neared them and left the gravity of the planet, the ships remained in horizontal and vertical order, apparently waiting for the order to attack. As they eyed the enemy carefully, the view screen switched to a view of a Zox. From the way he was dressed, he appeared to be a General, and he was a rather large one at that.

"I am General Garnel, commander and overseer of Mantai and its operations. This is a military zone, and you are guilty of trespassing, as well as attacking military facilities and personnel."

"In other words, you want us to surrender now or be destroyed, right?" Jazz asked in a cocky way. The general smirked.

"I have 140 M-rates awaiting my word to attack. Surely you cannot stand up to this."

"Maybe, but we're certainly going to try." Samus remarked.

"Very well then." The view screen then switched back to the outside view, and the M-rates moved forward.

(Replace hyphens with underlines, but leave the middle hyphen between studios and The)

vgmix.c om/songs/Section3Studios---The-Maverick-Revolution(Mega-Man-X-5).m p3

Several of them opened fire, and countless lasers rained down on the 64. Only seconds after they started getting hit though, damage became evident.

"Mario, shielding is already down to ninety-five percent!"

"Crud, this doesn't look good." Mario tired to avoid the fire, but it was coming from everywhere, and impossible to avoid. Zero then raised the 64's arm and did a quick fire. The laser beam continued to come out from the palm, and Zero moved it along, trying to hit multiple targets. The M-rates tried to fly out of the way, but he managed to take down twelve.

"Look out, they're going to ram us!" Sonic shouted. Three ships in front of them were charging up a shield in front of their pointed ships. Zero fired a blast at them, but it merely washed over their shields. Knowing what was going to come next, the 64 moved to the right and faced to the left. As soon as they moved, the three ships' pulse rockets fired, and the ships flew past them like lightning, mere meters away from them.

"Wait, there's another one, behind us!" Mario turned the ship around, but just as he did, the M-rate blasted forward, and tore right through the left shoulder. If Mario had not begun to move, it would have pierced a hole right through head. The Nintendo 64 had become stronger, but the piercing attack of the M-rates was still very dangerous.

The M-rates were everywhere. They were one against more than a hundred, and in open space, they were surrounding them like a horde of killer bees. But if space was too big, and being on the planet would be dangerous for the people, then where else could they go? When Mario asked himself that question, the answer became clear.

"Ash, open a slip portal, exit point anywhere in this battle."

"What? Why?"

"In space we're being attacked in all directions, but in a dimensional tunnel, there's only the ones that follow us in."

"Sounds like a good plan." Link noted.

"Okay." Ash then opened a portal right in front of them, and the 64 went in. Just as planned, five M-rates followed them in. The triangular ships fired menacingly, but with just a few, Mario was able to avoid a lot of the fire. The 64 turned around to face the M-rates, and flew backwards through the portal. Zero waved his hand at the five ships, locking on to each one. He then clenched his fist, and five lasers shot from the 64's hand, and hit each one of the M-rates dead on.

With no ships following them, everything quickly turned quiet. Everyone was too focused on the fight to idly chat, but as they watched the walls of the portal on the view screen, they began to feel less tense. They were now traveling through the middle of the portal, where the mirror image phenomenon was shown. The portal wall had become clear, and beyond it they could see a planet with a lush jungle, and a turquoise river. Seeing an inverted image of what they saw below them exactly above them was rather freaky, but seeing the alien planet made them feel tranquil.

A large, pink bird emerged from the trees and started to fly alongside the 64 beyond the portal wall, and the green trees that rushed by them suddenly changed to a sparkling clear ocean. The pink bird, with long shining feathers, continued to glide above the ocean with ease. It was too amazing for words, but when a beeping came from Sonic's console, everyone snapped back to the battle.

"There's a ship charging its shield at the other end." Sonic said quickly. The 64 turned around to face the exit, and up ahead was the M-rate. Since there was no room in the tunnel to move out of the way, Mario pressed the button to the right of his controls, and the 64 phased out of reality. The M-rate bolted forward where the 64 was, but instead went on, not hitting anything. The 64 then phased back into reality, and neared the exit of the tunnel.

---

The battle in space became quiet with the 64 gone, but with the exit portal in clear view, twenty M-rates lined up to fire for when the 64 would come out. The Zox kept their fingers on the trigger button, edgy to blast away. Just as the pressure mounted though, three bolts came out of the portal, and tore open another one just thirty feet away.

Seconds later, the 64 flew out with two energy balls in its hands. The 64 threw them to each side, and energy bolts whipped out from them, striking any ship that got near it, overloading its systems and exploding it. The Zox opened fire as soon as they saw the 64, but right after it threw the energy balls, it vanished from sight, and their lasers only impacted with each other.

The 64 slipped into the other portal, and managed to eradicate twenty-six M-rates with its lightning tentacle spheres.

---

"Two followed us in this time." Sonic said.

"Heh, guess that last attack took them by surprise." Zero then aimed at the enemy, and made quick work of them.

"This plan is going good so far, Mario." Roy mentioned. "At this rate, we should be able to…what the? Why is the tunnel getting smaller?" The tunnel walls around them, for some reason, were getting smaller, and closing in on them.

"What's going on?" Mario asked. The view screen then zoomed in, apparently responding to Mario's question, showing the exit point, where lightning-like bolts were pulling the portal closed.

"What? Are the M-rates closing the portal? Can they really do that?"

"A dimensional portal naturally closes off in time," Roy started, "but just as you pull open a hole through the dimensions, so can you do the opposite."

"What happens if we're in here when it closes?" Ash asked.

"I don't know, but I certainly don't want to hang around when it does." Roy said. Mario then gave the 64 all it had, and increased speed.

The tunnel steadily closed in, becoming smaller and smaller. With the size of the 64, they were already getting dangerously close to touching the edges. The exit was still out of normal sight, and the they were less than 130 feet from being crushed.

"We're not going to make it!"

"Of course we will, Ash! Now hang on, I have an idea!" Zero shouted. The 64 then placed its hands behind them as they flew straight forward. Zero then fired, and a laser beam shot out of each hand, and the 64 picked up speed significantly. The initial boost was sudden, and the force pushed everyone against their seats.

The exit came into sight, and the walls were so close that if the 64 were to move its arms beyond its own body, that would touch the wall. Giving an extra boost, Zero charged the laser blasts, which caused them to explode. The explosion gave them more speed, and they were pushed out of the portal just as it came close to touching them.

The Zox were expecting them, and several had their ships ready to charge straight through them. Unfortunately for them, the 64 came out faster than they predicted, and all but one missed. The one that struck, though, managed to go right through the left foot. Since the foot was not a whole lot bigger than the M-rate, the entire thing exploded and broke apart.

---

The 64 was being hit by lasers, that wasn't surprising, but when an explosion rocked the ship, that raised concerned.

"What the heck was that?"

"One of the M-rates just took out our foot." Link said.

"What? Well, I guess we won't be walking for a while. Now, let's…." Before Mario knew it, another explosion rocked the ship, this time much harder, as they had to hang on to stay in their seats.

"Now what?" Mario asked, thoroughly annoyed.

"Another M-rate just went right through our lower back! Emergency locks are closing to prevent air leakage."

"Great, just great. Are portal plan went down the drain, and now we're being ripped part. Someone please tell me they have another idea!"

"I might have one." Samus said. "A ditch and run."

"And exactly how does that work?"

"We ditch a bomb and run."

"Those things are fast you know, or did you forget?" Zero said, also annoyed with their situation.

"Then leave a bomb and stay here, but phase away just before it explodes."

"That only lasts for a few seconds! The explosion would still be here when we phase back!"

"Do you have a better idea?" Samus replied, becoming angry from the tension in the air. Zero wanted to say something, but his mind wasn't coming up with an answer. He then turned back to his console, and muttered.

"Fine, one bomb coming up. You all right with this, Mario?"

"Bomb, phase away, got it." Mario replied in a hurry. He would have liked to plan strategic moves, but he was far too busy trying to avoid the lasers and flying M-rates that came their way.

The 64 raised its hands as if holding a box above its head, and an energy ball began to form right above them. The 64 had to keep relatively still to produce this powerful sphere, so Mario had limited movement. Lasers rained down on them like a hail storm, and their shielding was dropping dangerously low, but it had to be done.

The ball grew in size, and crackled with electricity. Its light shone brilliantly, like a small, white sun, illuminating the darkness of outer space. The Zox began to worry about what the outcome of this battle might be, but they continued to fire away.

---

Mantai was cold, forever a planet covered in snow and ice. The Zoramites that lived there were used to the cold, but it was still bitter for them, especially when they were on the run from the Zox, and had no shoes, only a tattered piece of cloth for their body.

Rebekah carried her baby in her arms, while her three other children followed behind, marching across the endless white landscape. They whined and moaned, and couldn't bear it much more than herself, but they had to keep walking, or else the Zox that they escaped from might find them.

She continued on, but her strength was waning, and soon collapsed into the snow. She still managed, however, to move her baby to the side on the snow before she fell on top of him.

"Rebekah!" Sariah shouted. She and her own children were marching along with them, though they seemed to hold out a little better.

"Rebekah, are you okay?"

"Mommy! Mommy get up!"

"I feel so…cold."

"Come on, let me take you over to that tree to rest."

"Wait…what's that?" Rebekah said tiredly.

"What's what?"

"I see a light."

"No, Rebekah, don't so this! Hang in there!"

"It's actually…beautiful." Rebekah laid there in the snow looking up to the sky. Sariah looked up to where she was looking, and also started to see a light.

"Am I dying?"

"No, I see it too."

"Mommy, get up!" Her children cried. They started to lay next to her crying, wanting her to get up. Sariah then let them be, as their body heat would warm them up anyways. Sariah then looked back up to the sky, fascinated by this light.

The were no clouds in the sky, and the sun was getting low, making space more clear, and right above them was a dot of light, like a star, continually getting brighter and brighter.

"What is that?" She stared in awe at the brilliant light, but suddenly, the bright star seemed to explode, and became as bright as the sun, causing her to look away.

"What's going on here? Does that have something to do with the war?" As the light started to fade, she looked back up at the sky, and the ball of light had become an expanding ring. The light was moving outward, and dissipating as it did, but now it was getting closer to them.

The light came towards them like a tidal wave, ready to blow away anything it touched. It was cutting its way through the sky and coming towards the ground, but it was becoming dimmer and slower by the second, and finally vanished before it even reached them.

"What kind of power could do that?" She said in awe as she stared at the sky. Then, without warning, a sound six times louder than a sonic boom sounded, and at the same time brought a force wave that knocked her and everyone else down, knocking the wind out of them and leveling the snow.

---

"Mario, come in! Moroni, can you hear me? Somebody answer me!" Knuckles shouted to the computer, but all he got was a fuzzy screen and static.

"There's no way they destroyed their selves, right?" Another Zoramite asked.

"How am I supposed to know? Argh, come on! You can't die now!" The personality of Knuckles was getting to him, making him more angry than worried.

"Sir, come look at this!" Another Zoramite shouted. He immediately stood up from his chair and went to the other side of the computer station, where the person was watching surveillance cameras. On the screen was a video of the sky, and something falling from it.

"You called me to come look at a meteor?"

"No, this came from the explosion. Look at it, I think it might be the 64!" Knuckles then let out a sigh of relief.

"Okay, at least we know the ship is intact. Whether they're actually alive or not is another question." The fireball streaked across the sky, leaving behind a trail of fire. It begun to disappear over the horizon, but just before it did, it slowed down and lit up like a star, and then vanished from sight.

---

"Oh, man, it's just one crazy thing after another with you guys, isn't it? I should have stayed at home." Theo said with a big sigh.

"Come on, professor! We're alive, aren't we?"

"Yes, and we wouldn't have been if we didn't create that shield before phasing back into reality. Good thinking, Zero." Samus said.

"Just making sure you guys don't end up killing us all." Zero replied. Mario sat back in his chair, relaxing for a moment. The ship was out of robot mode, and remained hovering two miles above ground. Without moving from his spot or even opening his eyes, Mario asked the group what to do next.

"So, what else is on our list?"

"Nothing that involves this ship I hope! This thing is barely holding together!" D.K. said. Roy already knew what had to be done though.

"I imagine general Garnel is running scarred now, so perhaps this is the time to head straight for the source."

"So where is this Garnel?" Mario asked while stretching his arms.

"In the castle of Mantai. They turned my father's home into their base of operations after they invaded. I know the place, so I can lead you straight to him."

"All right then. We storm the castle and remove the Zox from power. Theo, you're all right with staying inside here in stealth mode, right? We need someone to keep it safe while we do this."

"Yeah, sure." As Mario sat up straight in his seat, the video screen switched to a view of Knuckles.

"Mario? Finally! You're alive after all! I couldn't get through to you!"

"Sorry, the aftermath of the explosion must have been causing interference."

"We haven't detected anymore ships, so what are you planning to do now?"

"Head to the castle and take down the general."

"Really? Well, it's about time. Good luck to you all."

"Thanks." The screen then switched back to the outside view, and Mario grabbed the controls. It was time to end the battle once and for all.

---

General Garnel paced back and forth behind his desk, taping his side. His mind was racing, trying to think of what to do. He was a particularly strong Zox, but when it came to his own survival, he was somewhat of a coward. He felt like running away, but he was in charge of defending Mantai, and Sandfire would have his head if he failed.

Garnel stopped his pacing when he heard a beep at the door. He went to the door and pressed a button, and the door slid open. A Zox was standing there, quite eager to tell him something.

"Sir, the Nintendo 64 is heading in our direction!"

"Well then? What are you doing standing here? Have all troops ready, and set the security system! They'll most likely to try to attack on foot, so we needn't worry about the 64. Now go, hurry!"

"Yes sir!" The young Zox ran off, and Garnel stood there, contemplating his situation.

"It'd probably be best to not hang around my office. Better head off to the control center." General Garnel started to run off to the control center, unknowing that it would be the last room he'd ever be in.


	19. Chapter 8: Freedom Calls Part 2

"There it is, Mantai Castle." Roy said. Below them was a field of snow, but up ahead was a group of mountains, and at the base of them was the castle. The entire structure was made from a very pale, blue rock, and built in a pyramid shape, with the base being a half-mile wide square, with same-height squares on top, sequentially smaller.

As they approached the castle, it suddenly came to life. Small turrets placed all over the castle propped up, and began firing at them.

"Zero, we really don't need more damage."

"Don't worry Mario, I've got it handled." Zero locked on to each of the turrets, and using low power, simultaneously fired a laser at each one. The turrets were obliterated, and strangely, nothing else attacked them.

"That seems too easy." Link mentioned.

"Maybe they've found the uselessness of sending CDs after us." Ash said.

"Maybe." They landed the 64 just outside of the castle, and as they exited from the ramp, they still found no resistance. The ramp then closed off behind them, and the 64 disappeared from their eyes.

"Good luck, professor." Marina said to where the 64 was. They then looked forward, and prepared to invade.

A stone-laid path led to the front entrance, where a large, golden double-door stood. The heroes walked up to it, and with no one there to resist them, it seemed rather suspicious. As Samus went ahead, Roy tried to plead with them.

"This castle is very old, so I'd appreciate it if you…" Samus aimed her blaster at the door, and after charging it up to full power, fired. The laser blast exploded on impact, and the doors bent inwards, and fell down with a bang. "…didn't damage anything." Roy finished with a depressed tone.

With the doors down, all that was ahead of them was a dark hallway. They cautiously stepped in, weapons at the ready. Instinct was telling them to go back, but it was the only way in.

The whole gang stayed close together, keeping their eyes in each direction in the dark passageway. As Roy took a step further, however, the floor fell out from under his feet, and he and the rest of the team quickly fell down.

Everything went pitch dark, and where they were going they couldn't tell; all they knew was that they were falling. They then came against a wall, but it was slanted, and they slid down almost as fast as they fell. They then dropped and hit another wall, sliding down in the opposite direction. A second later, they fell straight down, and hit the floor.

"Yuck, I landed on something hairy!"

"That's me, Ash!"

"Oh, sorry D.K."

"Ugh…my back."

"Is that you, Mario?"

"Man, where are we?"

"Hold on a sec." Jazz felt for his gun, and once he grabbed hold of it, pressed a button, and a light emitted from the front of the gun. Jazz waved the light around, getting a picture of where they were.

It was a small, square room, only about thirty feet long, and twenty feet high. Other than a few small holes in different locations of the walls, there was no exit point, besides the hole they fell through.

"Is everyone okay?" Link asked. People answered in the affirmative, and he saw that everyone was there. "Since that's covered then…" Link then turned to Roy, and gave him an angry stare. "Where are we? I thought you said you knew your way around here!"

"But I, I've never seen this place before! I never saw or even heard of this place having traps! We're a peaceful race, there would be no need to build traps. Then again…this castle _is_ pretty old. Our recorded history only goes back a thousand years, and this was built before that time. Is it possible that…my ancestors were once at war with each other?"

"I don't know that, and I really don't care." Garnel said with a chuckle. Everyone looked to see where the voice came from, and up on the ceiling was a video screen, showing the ugly mug of the general. "It's true though that no one knew of this little trap. You primitive Zoramites would have never found it, or the other ones. We used our sensors to scan the whole building, and found it laden with traps and secret passageways. Since I knew you were coming, I thought we'd set this one up for you." As soon as he finished his sentence, water began gushing out from the small holes in the walls. "Heh, crude, but effective." The water quickly surrounded their feet, and when it did, they found it to be boiling hot.

"Ack! What do we do?"

"We can't get out they way we came, that's for sure!"

"Ha ha ha! I just love to see my prey squirm!" Ash jumped around, trying to keep his feet from burning.

"Man, I wish this was cold instead." Ash thought to himself. That's when an idea struck him. "Dewgong! I choose you!" The Pokeball opened up, and out of it came a long, white, aquatic Pokemon. Dewgong immediately started to flap around when he landed in the boiling water.

"Ice beam the floor!" Dewgong ignored the pain, and sent a chilling beam of ice to the floor. The water then turned to solid ice, and it spread until the whole floor had become one giant ice cube. Water was still, however, coming out of the holes. Ash then directed his Pokemon to take care of just that, and fired an ice beam at each hole, sealing them up.

"Great, now I'm freezing!" Sonic said. His feet had become stuck in the ice when it froze over, as well as everyone else. D.K. knew how to take care of this though, and slammed his fists down on the ice. The force was so strong that it shattered the ice, and everyone was able to brake free.

"What? Argh, well you're still trapped in there, at least! We can just keep you in there until you all whither away!" Link ignored Garnel's threats, and scanned the room.

"Surely there must be a way for the water to drain out, and perhaps even a way for people to dispose of the bodies. There might be a door around here."

"Look, up there!" Samus said. "One of the holes didn't pour out any water. Perhaps it was dried out. If I go in there, I might find a way out of here. D.K., throw me up there!" She then hastily transformed into her morph ball, and laid there on the ice. D.K. then picked her up, ran towards the hole in the wall, and like a basketball player, jumped up and pushed her inside the hole.

"No! Guards, Samus is trying to escape! Go head her off!"

---

It was dark inside the small pipe, but with the light shining from the inside of the ball, she was able to see her way. She rolled forward for about five feet, where the pipe then went upwards. Samus charged up her boost ball, and rolled upwards. She flew two feet up, where the pipe then ended inside a large cylinder container. Samus transformed back to her regular self, and looked for a way out.

"I'm guessing this is the container that held the water. So if they would need to put ice in this and then melt it, then that must mean…." Samus aimed her right arm at the wall of the tank, and mechanisms at the tip of the blaster unlocked and folded over, and a missile flew out. The missile hit the wall, filling the tank with smoke, and tore open a hole.

Samus crawled out of the tank and into another room inside castle, with similar tanks nearby, each having a furnace under it. Lights were placed on the ceiling, most likely from the Zox, but what was most disturbing was the fact that there was already three soldiers there, each one with a gun pointed at her. Samus raised her arms up, showing that she was surrendering.

"My, three of you ganging up on a lady? That doesn't sound very nice."

"You're no lady! Now, come with us!" Two of the Zox grabbed her arms, while the other continued to point the rifle at her, and took her prisoner.

"That's really not necessary, I can walk on my own." With that, Samus transformed back into her morph ball and dropped to the floor, taking the soldiers by surprise. As she rolled away, she left behind three morph ball bombs, which, when exploded, left the Zox on their backs.

Samus rolled towards the end of the room, where a set of stairs was leading down. Samus rolled down the stairs, falling like bouncy ball. When she hit the bottom, she came to a stone door. She transformed back to her regular self, and when inspecting the door, found a raised block in the center. She pushed it in, and the door slid back an inch, and retreated inside the wall. The rest of her team behind the door was glad to see her.

"Come on, time to go!" As the heroes filed out of the room, Garnel watched with loathing from the video screen.

"Don't think this means anything! You'll still never see the light of day again!" His threats, however, fell on death ears.

As they ran towards the stairs, Samus charged up her beam weapon. As soon as they ran up the stairs, there were the Zox, waiting for them. Samus expected them though, and fired right at them. The three Zox were knocked back, receiving burns on their exposed skin. With the soldiers down, the heroes simply walked over them, and ran over to the exit.

---

(You know the drill)

ocremix.or g/songs/Sonic-Particle-Brain-OC-ReMix.mp 3

Two soldiers ran down the main hallway, now lit up in a dim red. The red lights placed throughout the castle were now on, giving the entire place a red glow. The siren was going off as well, and the two Zox were the second group to reach the point ordered by the general.

They approached the secret door in the hallway, but when they faced it and reached out to press in the hidden stone block, the entire door burst open, and all the pieces of stone flew at them, blasting them against the other side of the hallway.

The heroes ran out of the door, walking over the crumbled stone. Roy then took the lead, and started running to the left down the hall.

"As long as there aren't any more traps, we should be able to make it to the throne room, which is of course the central command center now." As they came to the end of the long hallway, they could see that it led to stairs going up to the next floor. They readied their weapons, and ran up the stairs.

Above them was the second floor, with six soldiers pointing their rifles. As soon as the Zox saw the intruders, they opened fire. One of them that had a sword and a cape nimbly dodged their lasers, and jumped up to the right side of the stairs on the second floor. Evading their fire, Roy lunged forward at one of the Zox, and plunged his sword right into his gut, piercing the soldier's armor and skin. He retrieved his sword and let the Zox fall, and then raised his cape as a shield to block the lasers.

With Roy on the defensive, he couldn't attack, but a second later, a spinning laser disk flew past him, sliced the two Zox in half, turned around like a boomerang and came back to its user. Roy turned to Zero standing behind him, getting ready to attack again.

The other three Zox tried to hit the ones below, but two of them moved faster than they could move their rifles, and before they knew it, the blue blur was knocking down two of the Zox's teammates, and the green one stopped right in front of him to fire missiles right in his face.

"Come, we need to get to the stairs at the other end of the hall!" Roy shouted. They all got up and started running down the second hall. Before they even got a third of the way, however, a giant stone wall suddenly came sliding down from the ceiling, and blocked off the entire hallway.

"Heh, you think this can stop us?" D.K. boasted. Both Marina and D.K. then punched the blue wall with their superior strength, and brought the old wall crumbling down. The heroes walked over the crumbled stone, and continued their way down the hall.

They tried to keep an eye out for any Zox, but they were caught by surprise when lasers started shooting from behind them. One of them hit Link in the right shoulder, putting a hole in his tunic. His skin was saved though, so he returned fire by grabbing his bow, and shooting an arrow through the neck of the person who shot at him.

---

General Garnel sat in his chair, looking at the large video screens up on the wall displaying the heroes from the security cameras. The throne room was spacious, and made for an ideal control center. Garnel sat in the throne, overlooking all of the Zox working on the computers in front of him. His fingers tapped more and more on his chair as the intruders got closer to him.

"What are these people? Is it even possible to kill them at all? Nothing seems to work!"

"Sir, should I deploy the Sentries?"

"The Sentries? Yes, yes, deploy them now! We need everything we can throw at them!"

---

The dimensional warriors were now getting close to the end of the hall, but before they reached the stairs, the lights turned off, and the whole place went pitch black. They stopped in their tracks, not just because they couldn't see, but also because they were unsure of what to make of this. The alarm was still sounding, so the power didn't go out, but they were definitely doing something different.

"Wait, do you hear that?" Link said. Everyone remained silent, and soon they were able to hear what Link heard. It was the sound of footsteps, but it wasn't Zox. The footsteps sounded of metal, and they were accompanied by the noise of moving mechanical parts. The sound was getting closer, and now it sounded like it was walking down the stairs. Since it was pitch dark, they couldn't see them, but whatever it was, their eyes were glowing red. There were four of them, and each one had a red line across their face for an eye, giving a cold, menacing sense of evil.

Jazz reached for the light on his gun and shined the light at the robot, and what he saw wasn't pretty. It was a silver-colored robot with a humanoid shape. Its body was heavily plated, and it had rail guns for hands.

As soon as Jazz shined the light on them, one of the robots fired its rail gun, breaking the light and knocking the gun out of his hand. It was too dark to see, and unless there was more light, he wouldn't be able to find his gun.

The lights may have been out, but the robots' eyes doubled as a target. Zero drew his saber and charged forward, but as soon as he did, the robot opened fired. The warriors may have not been able to see, but the Sentries were able to see just fine. Zero moved faster than the Sentry predicted and avoided the bullets, and managed to slice the robot in half. Zero then turned around and faced another glowing eye, but in that split second that he held still, one of the Sentries fired, and hit dead on.

Zero screamed in pain and dropped to the floor. Marina's heart stopped, and she called out for him, but didn't get a response, because as soon as he fell, all heck broke loose. The Sentries fired like mad, and all that could be heard was the sound of rail guns firing, and the screams of her teammates.

Marina feared the worst for her friends, but she couldn't stand there and do nothing. She rushed at one of glowing red eyes, and jumped for it. She landed on top of its shoulders, and she immediately grabbed its head, using her strength to crush it. She squeezed as hard as she could, her heart falling to pieces at the cries of her friends. The metal head bent inward, then gave way under the strain. The robot powered down, and dropped to the floor. There was a loud slamming sound, then everything suddenly went quiet.

"Is everyone okay?" Marina said as she stood up. Causing her to fear even more, no one answered. "Guys! Tell me you're alive! Please…somebody…." She wanted to hold it back, but a tear started to trickle down her cheeks. No one answered her call, and that meant only one thing: they were dead, they were all dead.

The dim red lights then came back on, probably because the Sentries were defeated, and what she saw told her why no one answered. In front of her was a stone wall, which would explain for the slamming noise. The rest of her team was probably on the other side, though how they fared she couldn't tell, but there was something else that still made her cry. Next to the stone wall was Zero, laying in his own blood.

"Zero, no!" Marina shrieked. She ran and dropped to his side, hoping he wasn't dead. His waist had been completely pierced by the bullets, and he was bleeding badly. She found it odd how he bled, seeing as he was a machine and all, but something always told her that he wasn't completely mechanical.

"Ma…rina?" Zero said weakly.

"Zero? Please tell me you're going to live." Marina said through her tears as she propped him up against the wall. Zero cringed as she did, and he was breathing heavily, not open his eyes.

"I'm loosing quite a bit of blood, and my legs won't respond."

"Hold on, Zero." Marina, in a worried haste, tore off part of her pant legs. She took the cloth and wrapped it around his waist, making sure to make it tight. The bullets had gone all the way through his body, and was bleeding on both sides. Thankfully, it looked like the cloth was helping.

"Thanks…that should…help." Zero said through heavy breaths. To his surprise, Marina suddenly threw her arms around him. He opened his eyes in surprise, and saw that she was crying.

(You know the drill)

ocremix.or g/songs/Stormlord-Seneca's-Marble-Pack-Edit-OC-ReMix.mp 3

"Zero, please don't go and die on me." Zero was taken back, seeing such emotion coming from the girl with strength stronger than himself. Zero took his hand and stroke her bright, green hair, trying to comfort her, and spoke in a soothing voice.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to go anywhere." Zero couldn't help but smile, and as Marina brought her head back up and looked into his eyes, she couldn't help but smile too. Zero leaned forward, bringing his face towards hers, and Marina did also, and they both kissed each other for the first time.

Marina found his lips to be surprisingly warm. Though Zero was a reploid, he was still very much alive. But that didn't matter much to her, as she herself was once an cyborg. Marina stayed there, keeping close to Zero, and Zero to her, not wanting to part.

---

Mario stood up, the lights having turned back on. He looked for his friends, and found them to be alive, though they weren't in the best condition. Mario bent down to pick up his hat, and as he brushed it off, found that there was a hole on the side of it where the bullet grazed him. A millimeter closer and he'd be dead.

"Is everyone okay?"

"Pika pika, chu chu pi!" Pikachu said frantically. Mario looked to where the Pokemon was, and saw Ash laying on the floor grabbing his right arm. It was bleeding badly, and Ash was trying desperately not to cry from the agonizing pain. Mario ran over to him to help.

"Ash, let me see that!" Mario took a look at it. The bullet had gone all the way through his arm, and broken the bone.

"It…hurts." Ash said, trying to hold back the tears. Link then got up, having given a fairy to Sonic to heal his wounds.

"Ash, drink this." Link said, handing him a bottle of red potion. He brought it to his mouth, and Ash swallowed, gulping it down quickly. Link then corked the empty bottle. The bleeding stopped, and his skin started to grow over the wound. "Lay still, it'll take a moment for the bone to heal."

"Thanks…that feels a…lot better."

"Hey, guys, where's Zero and Marina?" Sonic asked.

"I don't see Roy, either. Wait, that wall wasn't there before, was it?" Jazz asked.

"Freeze! Put your hands over your heads!" Everyone turned around, and up above the stairs on the third floor were ten soldiers, all aiming their guns right at them. Being in the condition they were at the moment, they had no choice; the warriors put their hands behind their heads.

"Now, get up and…." Several purple balls then fell from the ceiling, bursting into a gas once they hit the floor. The whole area became shrouded in a purple gas, making it near impossible to see. One of the Zox then cried bloody murder, and lasers were fired. More Zox fell with the sound of something piercing them, and soon they all fell to the floor. Later, as the gas disappeared, Roy stood there, his sword bloody.

"Didn't you think someone would try to attack while you were attending to your wounds?"

"I did, but if someone in our team is wounded, we won't make it very far anyways." Link replied.

"So, there's Roy, but what about Zero and Marina?"

"They must be behind the wall." Samus said. She walked up to the wall, her armor scratched and chipped from the earlier fight, and looked at the wall. "Marina! Zero! Can you hear me?" She received no response.

"It could be sound proof."

"I could knock it down, but if they're on the other side, I might hurt them."

"Ghastly, we need your help!" There was a flash of light, and a round ghost Pokemon appeared. Ash was sitting up, and other than being tired, he felt all right now, though he had to hold the Pokeball with his left hand. "Ghastly, go through that wall and find Zero and Marina for us." Ghastly nodded, and went right through the wall.

As Ghastly went through the wall, he looked for two other people, and as he looked below him, he became embarrassed. Zero and Marina laid there on the floor, deeply locked in a kiss. Ghastly then went back through the wall, never having made himself known to the two love birds.

"Well?" Samus asked. Ghastly shook his head, as if telling them they shouldn't go there.

"Ghast, ghast ghast ghastly." Ash looked at his Pokemon, and having a good relationship with the creatures, could understand roughly what it was trying to say.

"Uh, I'm not sure exactly what's wrong, but I think it's okay if we let them be."

"Fine, then let's just get going."

---

"How…how…how could they possibly do this? It's just not right! Those Sentries should have turned them into mush!"

"Sir, they're now proceeding through the third floor."

"Do not let them get here! Why haven't the guards taken care of them already?"

"All soldiers on lower levels have been killed, and there are only twelve left."

"This is a fine day for most of my soldiers to go missing." Garnel moaned. The warriors kept coming, and nothing he threw at them was working. He looked at the screen, seeing the enemies run through the hallway. "Hmm, they're getting close to the spear trap. It's set, correct?"

"Yes sir. The spears should be sprung and fired as soon as they step on the key stones." General Garnel watched with impatience, hoping that this next trap might work. He sat on the edge of his seat, but just as they were about to spring the trap, the video screens went to static.

"What the heck happened?"

"All security cameras just turned off, and we've lost communication."

"Argh, no way this can be accidental! This has sabotage written all over it! Did those stupid warriors do anything?"

"Not that we know of, sir."

"Then find out what happened, and make sure to…." The front door then suddenly blew open, and crashed onto the floor. Behind the door was Samus with her arm outstretched and smoke rising from her arm cannon.

"Garnel! That would be _my_ chair you're sitting in!" Roy shouted. Roy tossed the tip of a spear to the floor he had in his hand, and then boldly walked forward down the middle aisle, past the computer operators on either side. The Zox stayed put in their chairs, not wanting to risk their life. The six guards on each side of General, however, kept by his side, aiming their rifles at the Zoramite.

Roy's eyes looked directly at Garnel's, and the General merely looked at him with boiling anger. Roy walked up the steps and up to the throne, and stopped directly in front of the Zox. Roy then drew his sword, and pointed it right towards his head.

"Surrender, Garnel; surrender Mantai." The General stood from his chair, ignoring the sword pointing towards him. He then pointed towards Roy, and shouted,

"Guards, eliminate this intruder!"

"Beta Omega!" Someone shouted. With those two simple words, the guards then did an about-face, and aimed their weapons at Garnel.

"W-what is the meaning of this?"

"Revolution, general! Revolution!" The same person shouted. The heroes turned to look at who it was, and to their surprise, it was a Zox soldier.

"So, you're a rebel, Shin?"

"Yes, and so are the ones pointing the guns at your head. Now, as the man said, surrender Mantai." Garnel's eyes paced the room, looking for a way out. If he surrendered, Sandfire would have his head, and if he didn't, the rebels would. Fearing the War Master more than the rebels, he turned around and grabbed the rifle from one of the guards, but just as he did, the other five fired, and Garnel dropped to the floor with holes in the head.

Shin then turned to the rest of the Zox, and spoke loud and clear to them.

"The General of Mantai is dead. Either join our cause, or you can be taken prisoner." The computer operators looked at each other, and without giving it much thought, went along with it.

"Uh, sure, I'll join."

"Yeah."

"Of course."

"Right." Sonic then walked up to the Zox, and looked at him closely.

"Shin?"

"So you remember me, eh?"

"Yeah, you're that guard when we were prisoner on Compet! I have to admit though, it's tough to recognize you. You Zox look all the same!"

"Garnel called you a rebel; mind explaining?" Roy asked. Shin smiled, then placed his hand on Roy's shoulder.

"Simply that I'm on your side. The Empire keeps strict censorship on us, so even though it seems like we're all power-hungry monsters, there are some of us who disagree. We know the truth of things, and we want to restore our society back to a Republic, and take care of this whole conquering thing."

"Well, thank you Shin. I can finally restore Mantai back to the Zoramites."

"I take it you made it out of the prison okay?" Mario asked.

"Yep. I was able to avoid being found out about letting you guys go, and I ended up being transferred here."

"Seems that luck is on our side."

"Uh…did we miss something here?" Marina asked. Everyone turned to look back at the door, where they saw Marina standing there with Zero being carried on her back. Seeing the blood on Zero and the ripped up pants on Marina made them concerned, though, so Mario ran over to them.

"Hey, are you guys all right? What happened?"

"Eh, I'm fine." Zero said. "Just a bad hit from those robots, that's all, but my legs won't respond now."

"Here, let me help." Zero put his arm on Mario's shoulder, and Mario helped Zero to rest against the wall.

"Well, I guess it's finally time to take my place." Roy said. He turned around and walked up to the throne, and one of the rebels dragged away the dead body of Garnel. Roy sat down in the throne, and placed his arms in the armrests. He looked at the chair, admiring its fine craftsmen, as well as the memories.

"Heh, the last time I was in this chair, I was sitting on my father's lap, but now I've taken his place." Roy then looked at the Zox still sitting at their stations. "You there, turn on the camera, and broadcast the signal to all receivers on the planet."

"But the communications is down."

"Don't worry, I can fix that." One of the computer operators said.

"Huh? Do you mean you took it off?" The other worker said.

"Yep. All part of the plan."

---

Soldier 67343-Y picked up his bag, and headed for the door. He was due to report to duty soon, and he'd end up with guard duty again if he was late this time. He picked up the remote as he passed the TV to turn it off, but something caught his eye. It was set on the information channel, but instead of some text or Zox giving a report, there was a human sitting in the chair that the General would sit in.

"Citizens of Mantai. Ten hours ago, I made a proclamation to the world, and that proclamation has come to pass. General Garnel is dead, and I am now _King_ Moroni. Mantai is once again, planet of the Zoramites.

"This is a big change for us. Some of us will find difficulty adapting, but if we all work together, I'm sure that we can return our home back to the way it once was. I might not be the best King, or even a good one at all, but I promise that we will try to work things out, and make living, once again, something to look forward to.

"And now, my first order as King, is that all Zox who hail under the Zox Empire must leave as soon as possible, or they shall be dealt with force."

The Zox looked at the TV in disbelief. He looked at the bag in his hand, and thinking things over, emptied all of the military-related items, and put in his personal belongings. He then ran out the door, and headed to the next transport to Compet.

---

"Heroes, I can not thank you enough. You have saved our planet, and my people from living in a state of servitude." Moroni said with a bow. He and the rest of the resistance stood outside of the base. The heroes, after two days of healing and repairing, were ready to get back on board the 64 and head to their next destination.

"Don't worry about it. In fact, it should be Alma to thank. We would never have even known about you if it wasn't for him." Mario said.

"Yes. He may have tried to stop you, but in the end he tried saving us. For that he will be honored."

"So, are you sure you'll be able to handle things from here on out? You did just turn your planet upside down." Fox asked. The Starfox team had also come back, seeing as how the Zox were leaving.

"Heh, I think we can take care of that. You know, you guys have made quite a name for yourselves. When faced with some of the Zox that have tried to stay and resist us, just mentioning your names makes them reconsider. Seeing the Zox fear us, instead of the other way around, has been great for the confidence of my people. I think we'll be able to handle things just fine."

"Mario! Sonic!" Everyone turned around and looked towards the cave entrance, where the yelling was coming from. The person emerged from the cave, and Shin ran towards them with all speed.

"Shin? What's the matter?" Shin came to the group, then stopped to catch his breath. To be running to them with such worry couldn't be good.

"You guys, Nintendo is under attack!" Everyone's face turned to shock.

"What? What do you mean?"

"I just received word from my spies on Compet. Sandfire has taken the new mother ship to dimension N. He plans to destroy Nintendo!" The heroes didn't waste any time. Everyone immediately turned around, and headed up the ramp into the 64.

"Wait, I have to warn you!" Shin yelled. Mario then stopped, and looked back at Shin.

"What is it?"

"This new mother ship is much more powerful than before. Keep your guard up!"

"Will do. Thank you Shin, for everything." For a moment, it felt strange saying that. He had just thanked a Zox, the very people they were fighting. But it only lasted a moment, because he knew that one's race did not determine whether they were good or evil.

Mario ran inside, and the ramp retreated inside. The 64 then began to lift off, and fly away from the icy planet. As the Zoramites watched it fly away, they had to squint their eyes, as the sun was shining down at them.

"Wow, I haven't actually seen the sun that clear for a while." Roy commented.

"Yes, it's a new day for all of us." Knuckles said. He then looked back up, the 64 now out of sight. "So now they fight the War Master. Heh, if someone's gonna do it, it's them."


	20. Chapter 9: The Fight to End All Fights 1

**Chapter 9**

****

The Fight to End All Fights

(Close spaces and replace hyphens with underlines)

remix.supertux.c om/songs/Sonic-2-Robotniks-Trippin-on-Ecstacy-OC-ReMix.mp 3

"Hand over the rest of the Chaos Emeralds, now!" Robotnik shouted.

"Never!" Knuckles shouted back. The evil scientist had four Chaos Emeralds in his possession, while Tails and Knuckles had three. After days of fighting for them, the two had chased him down to his flying fortress, the Egg Carrier 7.

"Come now! With Sonic off doing who knows what, you don't stand a chance!" Eggman said with a chuckle. Knuckles then charged at him, and tried to strike down his hover pod. Eggman moved out of the way though, and Knuckles was left hitting the air.

The mad scientist then pressed a button on his hover pod, and four rods popped out from the floor around Knuckles and tails. It then emitted a hazy blue energy, and they became immobilized within the energy field.

"Ha ha ha! I told you! Now, I'll just take those emeralds if you don't mind." As Robotnik was about to take them, however, a large black ship flew past them in the blink of an eye, and fired several lasers at them. Explosions erupted all over the ship, and the stasis field lost power. One of the explosions hit Eggman, and knocked him right out of his flying contraption.

With the Chaos Emeralds out of Robotnik's hands, Tails ran and grabbed them, and then ran towards the edge of the ship. Knuckles followed, and when they came to the edge, they jumped off into the air, Knuckles grabbing onto Tails's legs while Tails flew down.

"What in the world _was_ that thing?" Knuckles asked.

"I don't know, but we're not the only ones that were attacked! Look over there!" Below the clouds and off in the distance, the black ship could be seen, and it was unleashing several powerful lasers on Station Square. After only firing for a few seconds, however, it then turned around and ran, but it left behind Station Square ablaze in that small time.

---

"Man, I hope Mario comes back soon. It's been so boring here lately!" Luigi commented.

"Boring? Shouldn't you say peaceful? Bowser hasn't tried doing anything lately. Would you rather have some sort of danger?" Peach asked.

"Oh, well, I don't mean that, it's just…."

"I know, I miss him too." Peach and Luigi stood by the window in the castle, overlooking the Mushroom Kingdom in the peaceful, sunny afternoon.

However, that peacefulness quickly changed to fear when a giant laser came crashing down on the field below. The two fell to the floor from the resulting quake, and when they got back up to see what happened, the found a giant crater in the field just beyond the castle. They looked to see what might have caused it, and saw in the distance something black, flying away.

---

The Nintendo 64 traveled through the dimensional tunnel, with the Great Fox just behind them, moving as fast as they were capable.

"How could they have built a new mother ship in such a short time?" Mario wondered. "I mean, it's only been about eight months since we destroyed the last one, and Shin said this thing is much more powerful. Are they really capable of doing such a thing?"

"I wouldn't put it past them. They seem to be capable of a lot of things." Link said.

"We're coming up to the exit!" The ship began to rattle a bit as they neared the exit, and when they flew out of the portal's mouth, the comforting site of Nintendo greeted their eyes.

"I still can't get over how big it is." Theo mentioned.

"Well, at least it's still there." Jazz said. "In fact, it doesn't even look like it's been attacked."

"Guess again." Sonic said as he looked at the images on his screen. He then transferred the images to the main screen, and showed the up-close views of the planet. Some places were badly damaged, whereas some places were completely annihilated. The screen then suddenly switched to a view of Sandfire, smiling with delight.

"Well, I see that my warning shots worked."

"Warning shots? What in the world are you talking about? You know very well the power of the Nintendo 64! You looking to die?"

"No, Falco, I am looking to put an end to all of you once and for all. And I intend on doing it with this, the P2!" Sandfire said proudly.

(Same again)

ocremix.or g/songs/Sonic-3-The-Outer-Space-Machine-OC-ReMix.m p3

He was now in outer space, just a little ways from the 64. The view screen switched to an outside view, showing the new mother ship.

It was jet black, and in a rectangular shape just a little longer than the 64's base. Knowing the previous one, this was likely its ship mode. The arms came out from the sides a few feet, then bent at ninety degrees and went parallel with the ship, extending beyond its base. Blue lines were lined across its sides, while three blue fins jutted out from the back.

"Is that supposed to impress us?"

"No, this is!" Just as he said that, a large laser beam shot out from each hand of the mother ship. Zero quickly put up a shield, and the transparent white energy was placed in front of them. The 64's arms were outstretched to block it, and as the beams collided, the shield bowed inwards, and the 64 was pushed back. The shield held together though, and the beams then vanished.

"What the heck? How'd you get that much power?" Fox shouted. Sandfire continued to smile, reveling in this new power.

"You see, when you destroyed our first mother ship, we made plans for a new one. We came up with a basic structure, improved on its previous flaws, and increased its power, but it still paled in comparison to you, especially when you invaded Compet, proving to be even more powerful than before.

"Karlnak tried to overpower you, but you proved to be stronger. I tried to outwit you, but you proved to be too cunning. With your combined traits, and the 64, you're a powerful force to be reckoned with. So, as the saying goes, if you can't beat them, join them."

"_Join them_? Wait, you don't mean…!"

"Yes, and it's all thanks to my Zoramite spies. They may have failed to capture the 64 for me, but they were able to provide us with the means to build this. You see, every Zoramite that we send on missions is implanted with several hidden devices, one of them being a 'black box,' sort of speak. With the time they spent on the 64, we were able to gather the information of its technology, and copy it to our own!"

"What? Why didn't they tell us about this?" D.K. asked, looking to the rest of his team.

"It's likely he forgot about it. Some Zoramites never even recognize it." Sandfire said, having heard D.K.'s question.

"But that was just a little over a week ago! You never would have been able to build it that fast!" Samus said.

"Ah, yes, but that's where your repair bots come in. We were able to copy that as well, and once we built them, all we had to do was reprogram it with the design specs of the new ship. With our second project, or P2, all set, it was built in no time. I have to say, this technology is far beyond any of us. It would have taken us centuries to reach this level of technology."

"Figures. All you guys do is take technology from other people!" Sonic shouted.

"If Sandfire is telling the truth, then that means this ship has the same power as the 64." Mario thought to himself. He then contacted the Great Fox, and spoke with great concern. "Fox, you have to get out of here. Go down to Nintendo and help out anyone in need."

"And leave you behind?"

"I'm sorry, but you'll only get in the way."

"Very well." Fox then ended the communication, and the Great Fox headed towards the planet.

"Well then, shall we get this show started?" Sandfire said with a smile.

"Fine. Maybe this time we can shut you guys up for good." With that, the 64 was engulfed in a ball of light, and the P2 did the same. As the 64 emerged from the light, Zero activated the energy blades, and the 64 held them in front in a battle stance.

As the P2 emerged from the light, it too had transformed into its robot mode. Its main body was bent down the middle, and pointed forward. Part of the main body rose from the middle, forming a dish-shaped head, with the blue fins on its head. Its arms came out of the tips of the front of the body, and it too had formed energy blades, ready to do battle.

Both forces charged forward with their blades in hand. The 64 took a horizontal swipe, but the mother ship managed to block it with its own saber, and strike out with the other. The 64 dodged to the left just in time to avoid the blow. The mother ship then swung both blades like a pair of scissors at the 64's head, but the 64 managed to put both blades in the way. The P2 tried to overpower them by pressing harder, but the 64 kept them at bay.

Taking a different approach, the 64 then delivered a kick to its underside, and knocked them away. As the P2 was being thrown back, however, it tossed its blades towards the heroes. The 64 then put both energy blades up in a cross to block it, and the collision caused all four blades to explode, and right in front of the 64.

The sudden explosion left the screen showing just the blinding light from the erupting energy, and in that time Sandfire was charging up a laser. Once the heroes were able to see in front of them, they found a large laser heading right for them. Zero then fired a laser beam back at it, and the two energies cancelled each other out.

"Ha! Do you see now the force you're up against?"

"Yeah! An evil maniac with a big toy!" The 64 then charged forward, its right hand held back as it charged up energy. The P2 then did the same, and they both charged straight for each other. Just before they were about to collided, however, Mario sent the ship out of their own reality, and vanished from space; however, Sandfire apparently had the same idea, and also vanished.

As soon as the heroes slipped into the dimension of fluid space, they saw the mother ship right in front of them, about to crash right into them. They both then put on the brakes, and fired their laser beams. As they collided, their combined energy erupted in a powerful explosion. They didn't know it at first, but the fluid space around them was reacting to the energy, causing it to become much stronger then it should have, and give off a dangerous radiation. Just before the explosion reached them though, they both returned to their normal dimension.

As they returned though, there was an odd anomaly occurring from the explosion in the parallel dimension, and showing in theirs. Space around them was bending and curving, along with transparent lightning and a cloudy white. It grew in random directions, but then vanished seconds later.

"Mario, let's not do that again." Link cautioned. Mario nodded.

"Agreed."

"Well, I certainly didn't expect that." Sandfire said. "But it makes no difference, as we are both still very functional. At least until now!" The mother ship then formed an energy ball in between its hands, growing to a large size. It then punched the ball, and it shattered into countless projectiles, all heading straight for them.

Since there were too many to avoid, the 64 put its hands out in front to block the blow, and formed a giant lens-shaped shield in front. The small lasers fell against the shield like mere raindrops, not hurting them the least.

"Ha! Is that all you got?" DK boasted, but as he looked at the screen, they saw that Sandfire wasn't in front of them.

"It was a diversion!" Zero shouted. Then, the whole ship suddenly shook violently, and was thrown forward, the P2 having delivered a powerful punch to the back. Mario put on the brakes, and the 64 stopped its forward motion. They then turned around, only to find a laser beam heading right for their face.

Ash and Theo were tossed from their seats from the impact, and the main video screen went completely white from the light. As soon as Mario regained control, he saw a large energy sphere heading for them. Zero countered by shooting a simple laser at it, exploding it on contact and avoiding its damage.

The heroes were once again caught off guard, however, as the P2 flew straight through the explosion, and coming right for the head. Its claws clasped onto the head of the 64, and its body at the upper portion of the 64. The 64 grabbed the mother ship's arms, trying to pull them off, but they were merely able to keep them from crushing them. The control room continually shook, making a metal grinding sound from the strain.

"The structural integrity of this room is dropping dangerously low!" Link shouted over the noise. Repair bots were being sent to the hull outside of the room, but it wasn't going to help them then and there.

Looking for another way out, Zero had the 64 let go, letting the P2 put the squeeze on them, but during that time, he activated an energy saber, ready to slice the ship latched onto them.

Sandfire's crew saw this coming, and pushed themselves away. They weren't fast enough, however, and received a large gash on their left side. It was a also a cut into Sandfire's pride, but not his determination.

Power, speed, and abilities were all the same. The Nintendo 64 was created by god-like beings, having the power to wipe out entire armies in a single shot. But now, through the sneaky ways of the Zox, they copied their power, and built an altered clone of the 64. They were fighting a fight against their selves, a fight that could only end in a stalemate.

---

"Oh, man! Shin said this new ship was powerful, but I didn't expect this!" Falco said as he watched the battle from the view screen.

"They've gone through a lot, so they should be able to pull through." Krystal commented. Slippy was even more worried though.

"But we have to do something! We can't just hang out on the surface!"

"And just what would you have us do, Slippy?" Fox snapped, obviously upset. "I doubt that even four nova bombs would do anything to that thing!"

"Hey, you don't need to get upset now, Fox!" Krystal yelled. Fox stopped in his tracks, seeing the woman he loved get upset at him. He gave it a thought, and realized that he was in the wrong.

"Sorry. It's just that they're in trouble, and there's nothing we can do to help!"

"There might be a way." Everyone on board the Great Fox, except for ROB, became shocked at hearing that voice. It came from no where, yet sounded as if it was nearby.

"Princess…Zelda?"

"Yes, it is I. I am communicating to you telepathically."

"You said there might be a way to help, what is it?" Fox asked. ROB turned around to look at him talking to someone who wasn't there, and started to wonder if he was going crazy.

"First, you must come here to Hyrule; I would like a ride."

---

A young man was running down the burning office building. Out of nowhere something attacked them, and the top five floors had been completely blown away. Now, he and everyone else was running for their lives, away from the fire spreading downwards.

Everyone else was running faster than him, and by the time he reached the lobby, he was the only one left. He ran out the doors and out onto the open streets, but as he ran, he didn't see the burning piece of debris that was falling for his head.

Then, out of nowhere, something red ran right up to him and grabbed him, and he was whisked away. It was then that he saw the large flaming debris that would have squashed him crash onto the ground.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, thanks Knuckles!"

"No prob." Knuckles then sat the man down, and looked behind him as several other buildings were coming down.

"Knuckles! I think everyone in this area made it to safety!" Tails shouted from above.

"Good. I still wish I knew what happened here though. Do you think maybe the Zox are back?" Those very words sent a chill down Tails's spine.

"I certainly hope not."

"Knuckles! Tails!" The two looked around for the voice they heard, but it sounded more as if it came from inside their own mind.

"Zelda?" Tails asked out loud.

"Zelda? You mean the princess of Hyrule?" Knuckles asked Tails.

"Yes, I am. You must listen to me carefully, as out friends are in trouble; they're fighting a battle they can not win."

"What? You mean Sonic and the others?"

"Yes. Now, do you have the Chaos Emeralds?"

"Yeah, we just collected all of them. Why?"

"Keep them safe until I come. We will need them if we are to give the Nintendo 64 an edge."

---

After their last clash, the P2 and the 64 stared at each other, waiting for the other one to make a move; Sandfire was the first to do something.

"Tell me, do you know the expanse of the Zox Empire? No, of course you don't. How could you, when you've only been to four Dimensions outside of your own? To tell you the truth, even _I_ have trouble sometimes remembering just how many planets we have control of."

"What are you getting at?" Samus asked.

"Come! Let me take you on a tour!" With that, a portal began to open just behind the mother ship. It then transformed into its ship mode, and entered the portal. "Catch me if you can!"

"Ha, he's acting just like Karlnak! Running away when the battle gets tough!" Sonic said.

"Come on, we can't let him escape!" The heroes transformed into their ship mode as well, and entered the portal, chasing the enemy.

As Sandfire traveled through the portal, he continued to smile. While the warriors from Dimension N probably thought he was running away, he was in fact ensuring his power. Many people had begun to doubt about the power of the Zox after hearing of the people who defeated Karlnak and invaded Compet. If he could just deal some damage to the 64 in front of other worlds, then the Empire might regain the control that they were beginning to loose. Although, if he were to be the one damaged in front of the people, then it will only add to the collapse of the Empire, but it was a bet he was willing to make.

---

The P2 was just ahead of the Nintendo 64 as they traveled through the dimensional tunnel. Zero opened fire, trying to take them down, but they managed to avoid most of the lasers. The Zox then fired several small orbs out in front of them. The orbs then stopped and remained in their place, and the P2 passed them up. As the 64 approached them, they started to come towards them, like homing mines. Mario flew downwards, avoiding many of them, but three of the orbs came in contact with the ship, and exploded.

"For such small mines, they're certainly powerful. They just took out five percent of our shielding." Link said. Zero again returned fire, but the Zox then dove downwards out of sight, as it exited the portal. Mario followed, and as they came out of the tunnel, they found themselves in orbit of a small red planet, with a belt of small rocks and dust circling it. Sandfire was heading to the surface, but Mario hesitated.

"Sonic, is he taking us to a trap?"

"It doesn't look like it. There's not much on the surface besides mining facilities."

"All right, let's head down then." As they descended through the atmosphere, they had to pass through a thick cover of dust. The 64 adjusted for the view obstruction, and showed the surface below. The planet's surface was rather barren, covered in a brownish orange dirt, with dust everywhere. As they got closer, they could see constructions, which mostly consisted of large meshes of tubes going in and out of the ground.

Sonic used his console to get a closer look, finding just what was on this planet. There were a few Zox here and there, but most of the beings were tall creatures, completely covered with protective gear. They had breathing masks on, and the eye covers were unusually large. They were all going to and fro, many of them hauling carts of ore.

"It's another slave camp, this one for mining some sort of ore." Sonic said. Jazz frowned, knowing what it must be like.

"I've been there."

"So I guess we can't just blow up stuff then." The P2 then stopped descending, and flew parallel with the planet about half a mile high. The 64 pursed their course, but Sandfire went on the offensive. It turned up sharply, made a U-turn, and headed straight for them. The mother ship then fired two large laser beams, but the 64 flew to the right to avoid the blast.

The Nintendo 64 then stopped and turned around to face their enemy, charging up their four frontal lasers. The P2 was also turning around to face them, and just as it did, the 64 fired. The four large beams flew towards the P2 with incredible speed, causing the dust within thirty feet of it to burst into flame. The Zox, however, veered to the left, avoiding the blast.

They kept heading towards the 64, and as they did, transformed back into robot mode. Seeing what was heading for them, Link quickly set the 64 to transform to their robot mode, but just as they emerged from the light, the P2 had already reached them, and delivered a punch that sent them hurtling towards the ground.

Mario tried to regain control, but they were moving too fast, and came to the ground at a horizontal direction. The back of the 64 touched the ground first, and the rest of the body tumbled along on the ground, creating a miniature canyon on the once relatively flat ground, and crushing several mining facilities and inhabitants along the way. Thankfully, the artificial gravity inside the 64 kept the heroes from tossing to and fro.

After they regained their senses and took back control of the Nintendo 64, the mighty machine stood up from the ground, covered in the dirt of the planet. Its armor remained relatively undamaged from the fall, but where they were hit on the chest, right where the lettering of Nintendo was, had a massive dent in it, along with several cracks.

"That's…not good." Mario mumbled to himself. As they looked up at the Zox, they saw that they were flying straight up into a portal. The 64 bent down a little, then leapt off of the ground, and rocketed after the P2.

Sandfire smiled to himself, with one battle having been successfully displayed.

* * *

As a special treat, I have a video for you. You might find it exciting: (Place forward slash after dude and an equal sign between ? and v) onfuego.c om/somedude?vid157 


	21. Chapter 9: The Fight to End All Fights 2

The 64 was again traveling down another dimensional tunnel. The P2 was still in robot mode, so the 64 transformed back into its ship mode. With the better speed it offered, the 64 was gaining up on the P2 quickly, and Zero charged up all four lasers. The 64 then fired the massive laser beams, but the mother ship then turned around and put up a shield just the same as the 64's. The P2 struggled against the force of the blast, but otherwise caused no damage. Just after the beam stopped, the P2 transformed back to its ship mode, and sped through the tunnel.

As they came out of the portal, the heroes became temporarily stunned with beauty. They were in the clear blue skies, soaring over a planet lush with life. Half of the planet was covered in oceans, and the land was filled with green plants, but the most beautiful thing was the cities. There were countless tall, white buildings, built with advanced technology in mind. The unblemished cities were interwoven with the plants, giving a balance between nature and civilization. The only problem with this was that every being that walked the planet was a Zox.

"Heads up!" Sonic shouted. The P2 fired two massive laser beams at them, and they were about to hit them. It was too late to go into robot mode and use the shield, so instead, Ash came up with a different idea. Using the strategy they used to fight the M-rates, he opened up a portal right in front of them. The laser beams that were about to hit the 64 instead were sent through the portal.

Inside the mother ship, Sandfire sneered to the screen showing the 64.

"Eh, very smart, warriors." Sandfire was about to give an order to attack again, but another pilot interrupted him.

"Sir, there's a portal opening right behind us!"

"What?" Just as he said that, the P2 was struck from behind by their own lasers. The ship was rocked hard, and started to loose some altitude.

"Damage report!"

"We've lost twenty percent of our shielding, sir, as well as one of our engines."

"Wonderful." Sandfire said with a sigh. He looked back at the screen, only to see the 64 charging towards them with two energy sabers in hand. The P2 lowered its altitude, and instead of the sabers cutting them in half, the middle fin was sliced off. Sandfire saw that the 64's momentum kept them flying away a bit, so Sandfire gave the order.

"Quick, transform now!" The mother ship was engulfed in light, and by the time the 64 turned around to face them again, they had already transformed back to robot mode. The 64 was about to strike again, but the Zox fired two large lightning tentacle spheres. As they approached the 64, they attacked them with their blades, which caused them to explode.

The 64 continued to drive forward even through the explosion, and as soon as they reached them, the 64 struck out with its fist. The fist was directed to the head, as the view screen was blocked by the 64's hand. The P2 was sent flying back, but once it regained its balance, they noticed that the view screen was showing things at a higher angle.

"What's wrong with the screen?"

"Sir, the P2's neck has been bent! We're situated at a ninety-nine degree angle!" Once the officer said that, Sandfire slammed his hands against his arm rest. His head was facing the floor, and his eyes were closed, rage building inside of him. The other Zox could feel the anger growing inside of the otherwise calm War Master. For a moment they felt like they were feeling his anger, but as the seconds passed, they noticed that it was the temperature, as it was getting increasingly warm inside the control room.

"Uh, sir? Your orders?"

"Argh! Take us out of here!"

"Where?"

"Anywhere but here!" The pilot did as he was ordered, entering in random coordinates for an alternate dimension, not knowing of whether they had control of it or not.

"How…why…I don't understand." Sandfire thought to himself as he sat there, anger getting the best of him. "I've been trying and trying to get rid of these pests. After years of dreaming and planning, I was able to assume the position of War Master, I've tried to succeed where Karlnak failed, and even managed to build the most powerful ship the Empire has ever had, and yet still I can not succeed! How can this be? Why? I've worked too long, too hard for this!"

---

A weather-torn silver dodge truck pulled up to the parking lot of a hotel in Los Angeles, and as the truck came to a stop, a young man stepped out. He closed the door, only for it to not close all the way.

"Piece of junk." He opened the door again and slammed it harder, completely closing it. "Why do I always get stuck with the junky cars?" He was about to turn around and go inside the hotel, but as he did, everything suddenly darkened. For a moment he thought it was a cloud blocking the sun, but it was too dark, almost as if it was night. He looked up at the sky, and though he didn't see any stars, it seemed dark enough to be night. A more frightening sight was the sun, as it was still there, but appeared to be much smaller, and dim enough to look at.

"Wha…what's going on here?" As he looked to the sky, he noticed something strange, like some sort of portal was opening high in the sky. It grew to a large size, seeming to be almost as big as a baseball stadium. What happened next was completely shocking, as a huge black ship came flying out, that looked somewhat like the Playstation 2. Lasers then came flying out of the hole in the sky, followed by what appeared to be the Nintendo 64.

The hole then shrank and disappeared, and the noonday light reappeared. The two giant ships flew around in the sky, shooting large lasers at each other, which thankfully flew off into the sky. Then, they were both engulfed in a ball of light, and came out of them looking like giant robots. They came flying at each other with their fists out, and ran into each other, slugging each other at the same time.

They continued to fight for a few minutes longer, pulling out different techniques with lasers, when the sky darkened again, and another portal opened. The Playstation 2 ship flew in it, and the 64 followed. The portal then closed, and everything was back to how it was before he drove up.

The young man stood there utterly confused and shocked, wondering if he was going crazy.

"Did I just see…what I think I saw? Perhaps…I should start playing less video games."

---

"Any idea of what Dimension that was?" Mario asked.

"Don't know, but it seemed that there was only humans there. No Zox or anything."

"Wonder why they took us there?" The heroes continued to chase the P2, unknowing that they had come across the very dimension that the beings from Dimension X had mentioned of having many ties to their own Dimensions.

As they began to emerge from the portal, the heroes of N and D were surprised that they came back to Dimension N, just beyond Nintendo. The P2 then stopped and turned around to face the 64, and they in turn stopped. The two machines looked at each other, each having received significant damage. There were cracks in several places in their armor, many dents, as well as gashes and sliced parts. However this battle would end, it wasn't going to last much longer.

"Forget it! I'm tired of playing around with you. It's time to end this, and right in front of the planet you serve to protect!"

"We'll just have to see about that!" But just as Mario said that, the P2 disappeared.

"They're in stealth mode!"

"No problem." Zero said. He then had the 64 place small orbs of energy all around them, having them completely surround them. He then had the 64 place its hand together in front of them, then all of the orbs shot out in all directions. It wasn't long before they saw that three exploded to the upper right of them, and as they turned around, the P2 came out of stealth mode. However, it had its palms stretched out, and facing them, charging up a powerful laser beam.

The mother ship then fired, so the 64 did the same, and fired back a beam of their own; however, the P2's beam had charged up longer and was therefore more powerful, so when it hit the 64's, it merely slowed down, engulfing their beam. Zero put more power into the beam, and soon it was theirs that overpowered the Zox's.

Seeing their beam being overpowered and coming closer, the P2 put on the locks, keeping the ship in place as more power was put into the beam. The laser was coming back again to the 64, so Mario likewise locked the 64 in place, and Zero put all the power they had into the laser. The two forces, now at an even power, battled to succumb the other, but neither beam moved. It was like to streams of water hitting each other, its excess flying off in different directions as they hit, only that the beams were 370 feet in diameter.

The two forces were trying to push each other back, with the ships' thrusters keeping them locked in place, though the ships were rattling from the pressure.

"We're not getting anywhere! Zero, can you put more power into the beam?" Mario asked, having to raise his voice over the noise from the vibration.

"I'm giving it all she's got, captain!"

"Then I bet the Sandfire is too." Samus said. "It's true, the P2 has the same power as us, and now we've reached a stalemate."

"Then let's stop this and get out of here!" Ash said.

"It's too late! All of our power is being put into the beam, and if we stop now, then…we'd never be able to escape the Zox's beam in time." Mario finished with a sad tone.

"So then…what happens if we keep this up?"

"We'll run out of power." Link said. "This ship has an amazing well of energy, and I've never seen the energy bar go any lower than ninety percent, but now it's at forty, and still dropping."

"And then the beams will loose its power, and explode." Theo said.

"What?"

"I'm surprised it hasn't already. When two lasers at a relatively same power collide with each other, they explode, but I'm guessing it didn't happen here because ours was weaker at first, but now, I don't know. Either way, when this is done, it's not going to be pretty." Theo then looked rather depressed. "To think it all ends here. I still haven't looked at all of my hot rod magazines!"

"Professor, you're impossible!"

"I could send a charge down the beam; it'll make the beams explode sooner." Zero said. Mario closed his eyes, giving it thought. He then sighed, seeing what little choice they had.

"Do it. If we go down, then so will they."

"Wait! There's still hope!"

(Replace hyphens with underlines and close gap)

olivier.spiteri.free.fr/Musiques/06-what-I-m-made-of.m p3

"Zelda?" Link asked out loud. The video screen then switched to a view of Fox's cockpit, with Zelda sitting right behind Fox. They were surprised to not only see Zelda, but what she was doing. Her eyes were closed, obviously using much concentration as a multi-colored orb was floating in between her hands, with the Chaos Emeralds circling her.

"What's going on here?"

"We're here to help! Zelda has a plan, so now we just need to get on board."

"But you can't! The docking bay can only open in ship mode."

"That won't be necessary." Zelda said through her mind. "Just take me close to the 64." The communication channel was closed, and the Arwing flew behind the 64. Then, using her powers, Zelda vanished from the ship, and teleported into the 64.

Zelda was inside the engine room, next to the power core. It was a large pillar that connected to the top and bottom of the room. Inside it were crystals, along with other machines, that powered the ship.

What Zelda was doing was a feat that was beyond even most Hylians. It took much mental concentration to hold not only a sphere of the Sages' power, but keeping the Chaos Emeralds at hold as well. Speaking telepathically and teleporting herself only added to the strain that her mind was going through, but Hyrule, even the planet, was at risk, and she'd do even more if she had to.

Zelda then opened her eyes with a stern look on her face, and initiated the plan.

"Chaos Emeralds, go! Give this ship your power!"

The emeralds that were circling her then spiraled away from her, and circled the power core. They then vanished from sight as their powers entered the 64's.

---

"Does Zelda know what she's doing? The Chaos Emeralds aren't simply batteries!" Sonic said. "While it may give you incredible power, it also drains the users energy!"

"And that's why she's borrowing the power of the Sages. She's using it to fuel the emeralds, while we receive the power we need."

As the power core took in the energy, it began to be fueled with the power of chaos. The 64's chest then began to give off a golden glow, and that glow spread out to the rest of the ship. A golden aura emanated from the Nintendo 64, and the laser beam that it was firing grew even larger, and shot out even faster then before.

As Sandfire sat in his chair, looking at the screen, his jaw dropped. Their laser beam was being engulfed by the 64's, and it came speeding towards them like a tidal wave. As the light intensified and the beam filled the display of the video screen, all he could do was stand there and wait their destruction.

"Aw, crud."

The laser beam struck the P2, cutting right through it. The parts of the ship that remained exploded, and a powerful explosion it was. Space was lit up as a bright, white light lit the entire area, like an exploding sun. The explosion was massive, its range being as big as the moon. Everyone on Nintendo could see it, as it even made the night seem like day. It was a powerful explosion for a powerful ship, and an appropriate light display for the victory of the heroes.

With the battle over, the golden glow faded, and everyone was cheering. Marina jumped up and down with excitement, and hugged Zero, who merely smiled. Ash was cheering with joy while holding Pikachu; even Starfox was celebrating. Link, however, was concerned for Zelda, and left the control room.

He walked down the halls and down stairs, reaching the engine room. As the door slid open, he saw Zelda laying on the floor. Link ran over to her and tried lifting her up, hoping she was all right.

"Zelda, are you okay?" Her eyes started to open slowly, appearing to be exhausted.

"Link? I'm…okay, just…drained."

"Come on, I'll take you to one of the beds so you can rest." Link was about to pick her up, but then a horrible expression came over her face.

"Wait! Something's not right!"

"What? What is it?"

"There's someone else here on the 64!"

---

Mario was jumping for joy, but then he started to feel hot and tired, so he sat back down in the pilot's chair. He rested there, smiling that the battle was finally over. Even against a foe with the same strength and abilities, they were able to pull through. Mario rested; it had been a long day.

But as Mario rested, he wasn't cooling down. In fact, he was only getting hotter. He lifted his hat and put his hand through his damp hair, and waved his hat to cool himself down.

"Whew, is it just me, or is it hot in here?"

"No, I'm feeling pretty hot, too." Ash said, also sitting down.

"What's going on? Is something wrong with the temperature?" Donkey Kong asked. His answer, however, was not what he had expected, nor what he wanted to hear.


	22. Chapter 9: The Fight to End All Fights 3

There was a small explosion just outside of the control room, and the door burst open. Chunks of metal flew into the control room, missing the heroes, but who was standing behind the door blew everyone's mind away: it was the War Master himself, Sandfire.

"What the heck? You're supposed to be dead!" D.K. shouted. A smirk came across his face.

"Yes, supposed to, but I'm not." He slowly walked into the control room, while everyone else stood their places, drawing their weapons. "Tell me, have you ever thought of what became of your Zoramite friends, the ones that broke you out of my prison?" Sandfire asked. Mario looked at him sternly.

"We figured they died keeping you guys at bay."

"And that they did. But do you know how they died? The same way you will!" Sandfire raised his right hand, and snapped his fingers. A fraction of a second later, Mario's seat exploded right behind him. Mario fell to his face from the shock wave, and as he stood up, he was completely flabbergasted.

"How did…."

"I do that? You know, physical strength is so…limited." As he said that, the gun that Zero was holding flew from his hand, and floated towards Sandfire. It floated in front of him, and as Sandfire looked at it, and was crushed, as if invisible hands had squeezed it. Sandfire then smiled. "There is so much more that one can do with the mind."

"So you're telekinetic, is that it?"

"And don't forget pyrokenetic." Sandfire then snapped his fingers, and one of the monitors exploded, the shattered glass falling to the floor. "You know, if it wasn't for Zelda, I'd be dead right now. I hadn't known how to teleport myself, but when I saw Zelda do it, I figured out how."

"So, you're just like Karlnak then, aren't you? Another genetic freak."

"I am nothing like Karlnak!" Sandfire shouted. As he did, the temperature raised significantly, and a hot breeze emanated from him. "That fool was the War Master, the one with all the power! Some might think it's the emperor who has the power, but it's the War Master who has every single soldier at his disposal!"

"Someone has anger issues." Sonic said mockingly. Sandfire then shot him a glare, his console exploding behind him.

"I was the greatest genetic success! We Zox are able to use only seven percent of our brain, but I, on the other hand, am able to use ten times that much! I honed the abilities that this power granted me, exceeding anything that my peers could have ever imagined. While everyone else trained their muscles, I trained the mind, leaving my body alone.

"With this superior power, I had to put it to use, and since there is no other Zox like me, what better position in life to fill than the ruler of the Zox Empire!" Sandfire said with an evil glee. Mario grimaced, seeing into the true eyes of Sandfire. He had taken him for a calm and collected person, but now, he saw that he was just another egotistic villain hungry for power.

"I tried entering the military, but they took just one look at me, and found me pathetic because of my weak muscles, and it's all because of Karlnak! He was the military's leader, and because he was one of the strongest, that's what was considered to be the example. Because of that fool Karlnak, I couldn't enter the military, so I had to do what my mentors had taught me not to do: use my powers against my own people."

"You mean you'd hurt your own kind? You truly are a monster."

"Not necessarily hurt. To get what I want, all it takes is some simple mind manipulation." Sandfire then snapped his fingers, and Ash suddenly became confused.

"Huh? Ah! What's Sandfire doing here?" Ash said, confused and scarred. Mario looked at him, starting to understand what Sandfire meant.

"You can erase people's memories?"

"Or make them however I want. All it took was a little alteration to make the recruitment officer sign me up, and I did the same thing to my superiors to move up the ranks. And thanks to you, I didn't even have to bother with Karlnak. With him dead, I was able to take his spot easily."

"If you can change people's minds, then why haven't you killed us already?" Mario asked. An evil grin then came Sandfire's face.

"Oh, because I'll have much more fun making you suffer!" He then raised his right hand towards Mario, and Mario was sent flying backwards, slamming into the main video screen. The screen short-circuited and blanked out, and Mario fell to the floor unconscious.

"Why you little…." Jazz raised his gun, set it to toaster, and fired rapidly. The fireballs, however, stopped in mid-air before hitting Sandfire, and were sent back at Jazz. He too was sent flying to the wall, with patches of hair completely burned off.

"Pikachu go!" At Ash's command, Pikachu sent a massive bolt of electricity towards Sandfire, but it curved away from him, and was sent back at them. Pikachu and Ash were shocked, and fell to the floor.

"Anyone else?" Sandfire said mockingly. D.K. looked at him, rage building. He knew that everyone else was tossed aside, but he had to do something. He was about to charge at him, but stopped when he saw something else.

Sandfire stood there smiling, but then lifted his left hand with the palm flattened, as if saying to stop. He then turned around, looking at the man behind him. It was Link, with his sword ready to pierce him, but he wasn't moving an inch.

"Thought you could sneak up behind, did you? You should have known that I have a higher sense of perception." Sandfire said. Link tried to move, but Sandfire had stopped him just before he made his strike, and now he couldn't move an inch.

Link's sword was then removed from his hand, and floated towards Sandfire. It then turned around and faced Link, and his eyes widened in fear as he saw what was coming. The sword then flew towards Link, piercing him right through the chest. Link was sent backwards from the impact, and hit the wall. He looked at his companions with great worry until his eyes started to close, and his Hylian blood ceased to flow through his veins.

The sword then floated out from Link, and went to Sandfire's hand. He held it with his right hand, looking at the blood that dripped from it.

"Now, who's next?" Everyone could merely look at Sandfire with horror. With one blow, he had killed their friend Link, and now he merely stood there smiling, willing to kill anyone with a single thought. D.K. couldn't stand this, and even if he wouldn't be able to hurt him, he had to try.

The raging ape charged towards Sandfire, letting out a primal roar. He cocked his fist back, ready to pummel him, but just as he swung for his hand, Sandfire vanished. Hitting air, D.K. stumbled a bit, but as he regained his balance, he saw that Sandfire was now behind him, having used his new teleportation ability. D.K. swung again, but his fist stopped inches in front of him, as if he had hit an invisible, impenetrable wall. Sandfire then snapped his finger, creating an explosion that blew D.K. to the wall.

Sandfire then lifted his hand to stop the grapple beam that was going for his back, a failed sneak attack by Samus. Then, grabbing the grapple beam with his mind, he yanked on it, tossing Samus forward.

"Hmm, you know, you're a powerful warrior. Just how would the others stand against you?" Sandfire said with a sinister smirk. Samus's eyes widened.

"What? No, you wouldn…." Before she could finish, her body went lax, and stood there like a puppet. She then stiffened, and raised her arm cannon, pointing towards Sonic. Sonic gasped, seeing his friend aim at him, but he sped to the left just as Samus fired a missile, blowing apart the console on the wall that was behind him. Samus then charged up her power beam and fired it at Sonic, but he was still too fast for her.

Changing targets, she aimed for Zero. She fired her beam weapon, but Zero raised up his shield, and repelled it back at her. She was knocked back a bit, but it hadn't harmed her much. She then readied her arm cannon to fire a missile, something that he wouldn't be able to block. She was about to pull the trigger, but the force that was controlling her began to wane, and she was able to pull herself away.

Samus then pointed towards Sandfire and fired. Sandfire was caught by surprise, but managed to block the blast with his powers just before it hit him. The missile exploded, the fire curving around his body as if there was an invisible shield. The heat in the room raised again as he looked towards Ash, where a Pokemon known as Golduck stood by his side.

"Heh, you thought electricity could finish me off? I've become accustomed to such attacks. Golduck, Confusion!"

"So, you think you can use another creature with psychic powers to defeat me? Think again!" Sandfire then raised his hand towards Golduck, who was sending psychic energy at him. The Confusion attack felt more like a tickle, so Sandfire did the same attack to the Pokemon, but much stronger. Golduck's arms flew up and down as it screamed in pain, and its pupils went into its head. Golduck then dropped to the ground flinching.

"Ah, Golduck! Return!" The poor creature retreated into the Pokeball, and Ash got ready to send out another. "Fine, try Umbreon then! Psychic attacks can't hurt a dark Pokemon!"

"Oh, shut up." Before Ash even took out the Pokemon, Sandfire snapped his finger, and an explosion erupted right in front of Ash, knocking his head against a console.

The heroes tried making another sneak attack, as Zero came rushing up from behind with his saber. The attack was fast, but Sandfire was faster, and he froze Zero in place.

"Well, this whole little fray has been exciting, but I'm beginning to grow tired of it." Sandfire said calmly. Zero struggled to move, but it felt as if all his circuits were frozen in place. Sandfire then slowly closed his hand, and Zero began to feel a horrible pressure building on his body. The skin on his face started to press inward, and Zero felt as if he was several hundred feet below sea level.

"Ahh!"

"Zero, no!" Marina shouted. She ran towards Sandfire, knowing she couldn't harm him, but tried anyways as long as Zero was in danger. She used her rockets to propel her forward, ready to slug him, but she too was frozen in place, and began to feel the horrible pressure squeezing her body.

"Eat this!" Sonic shouted as his foot flew towards Sandfire's face. Sonic was incredibly fast, faster on his feet than any known creature, but Sandfire could sense him coming the second he took his first step, and he froze him in mid air. Sandfire now had three of the warriors in his grasp, slowly squeezing them to a pulp.

"Ha ha ha! That's it, die slowly, so that in the after life you can remember the pain, and the face of your executioner! Ah, to see your faces! You know that you've failed, and you're letting down everyone you know, and there's nothing you can do about it! Ha ha!" Zero looked at Marina, and Marina at Zero, but the pressure was too much for either of them to speak.

"Finally, you'll all die, and then I'll use the Nintendo 64 to enslave everyone! I'll make sure everyone on Nintendo suffers, and then, I'll go meet with the Emperor himself, and take the throne! I'll be the most powerful being in all of existence! Ha ha ha ha!" Sandfire laughed, the thoughts of power enthralling every one of his senses. He laughed a wicked laugh, one that could even frighten the devil himself.

Sandfire's laugh echoed throughout the ship, but then, suddenly and painfully, that laugh became a scream of agony. Marina, Zero and Sonic were released from the telekinetic grasp, and dropped to the floor gasping for breath. Sandfire then looked down at his chest, to see a sword pointing out from it. The sword then retreated back inside, and as Sandfire gasped in even more pain, he dropped to the floor.

Sandfire looked up from the floor, and to his surprise and horror, it was Link he stood there, holding the sword that pierced him.

"But…how? You were…dead." Sandfire said through his weak breath. Link's shirt had a hole in it, and it was stained with blood, yet he stood there, very well alive. Link reached his hand under his tunic in the back, and as he took his hand out, held some shattered pieces of glass.

"Looks like when you stabbed me, you also broke the jar that held my red potion. It must have seeped into my wound and healed me."

"No…that…can't…be!" Sandfire's breath was labored as he fought to stay alive. As Link stood there, he saw Zelda walk up to his side. Zelda had used her ability to conceal Link's presence, so that Sandfire wouldn't be able to sense him as he went for the kill.

"Haven't you learned, Sandfire? Heroes never die." Link said. Sandfire took a gasp for air, still stunned that he had failed. His eyes then closed as he exhaled, never to take in another breath. He had dreams and ambitions, and the power to do it, but because it would put other people in a state of misery, fate was against him.

---

Things were dark, and Mario felt worried, but as things started to get brighter, his conscious started to come back to him. He then shot up and looked around him, remembering what happened when he was last awake.

Mario found himself sitting in a room that he didn't recognize, though it seemed familiar. The walls and floor was the same as the 64, but he was in a room he wasn't before. It was a little bigger than the control room, and the most curious thing about it was the ten vertical tanks that stood in a line. They were filled with a blue liquid, and Ash, Jazz, and D.K. were inside them.

"What's going on? Where am I?"

"Don't worry Mario, everything's fine." Mario turned around to find the voice, and saw Link sitting on a bench next to him.

"But, Sandfire and…."

"It's all over. Sandfire is dead."

"So then, where am I?"

"The medical bay; it's a room that appeared when the 64 was upgraded. I noticed it on the map on my console, but we didn't have much need for it until now. Those tanks over there are healing them, while everyone else got minor treatments."

"But…just how did you guys defeat Sandfire?"

"Maybe later. I'm feeling rather worn out from it all."

"So, you're awake now?" Fox said. Mario looked to see Fox walking towards them, and Mario stood up to greet him.

"Seems so."

"Man, we were getting worried when we weren't able to contact you."

"What? Why not?"

"Well, we think that Sandfire was blocking the communication at first, but after that whole fight in the control room, communication, as well as many other things, went offline. The control room seems to be a priority though, as the bots went to fix that first."

"But then, what do we do now?" Mario asked, his tone less than happy.

"What do you mean?" Fox asked.

"When we destroyed Karlnak and the mother ship, Sandfire took his place, and built another ship. I imagine the same thing would just happen again."

"I see what you mean." Link said. "So the only real way of defeating the Zox would be to change their whole society, seeing as how killing them all is out of the question."

"So…we haven't really won at all then, have we?" Fox said, now too feeling defeated.

"Actually…we might still have." Link said, starting to realize something. "The Zox society weakened when we killed Karlnak, and even more so when we invaded Compet. And again, there's Shin. A revolution could be in the near future."

"A revolution…." Mario said to himself, thinking it over.

---

"Destroyed? What do you mean the P2 was destroyed? It was launched only yesterday!" Crom shouted.

"That's what we said, my lord. I'm terribly sorry." The servent said with his head bowed, afraid of something the Emperor might do to him. Crom, the Emperor of the Zox Empire, slammed his fists against his throne in anger.

The throne room that he sat in was huge, about 300 feet long, and 100 feet wide. A red carpet extended from the huge double-door entrance, with a path that led straight to the throne. Beyond the path was a dark pit that dropped straight to the floor, 1,000 feet down. On the path was a guard stationed every five feet on both sides, standing straight as a statue. Ornate tapestry hung from the walls and ceilings, while hidden view screens let the Emperor see anything he needed.

"That's the report we received." The servant said. "Since Sandfire failed to report within a day after he entered Dimension N, we sent our scouts to investigate, and found what we believe to be the remains of the mother ship. We're having it analyzed, my lord, but evidence is showing the worst."

"Two War Masters fallen to the warriors of Dimension N. I'm running thin on able War Masters! Never in our history have we faced such a dilemma!" As the Emperor pondered what to do, one of the tapestries moved to reveal a view screen, showing a Zox that looked rather upset.

"My lord, a group of rebels are heading your way!"

"What? Why did you even let them get this close?"

"They came out of nowhere! It's almost as if they were invisible somehow!" Just then, the doors burst open, and all of the guards that were stationed there opened fire. They kept firing for several seconds, creating a cloud of dust from the chunks of the concrete wall they blew apart. They stopped firing to inspect the area, and as the dust cloud disappeared, they saw that no one was there. Then, a hand appeared from behind the door, tossing a small metal ball. The guards opened fire, but missed the hand. However, they hit the ball, and prematurely activated the bomb.

After the bomb exploded, the troops stormed in, and out from the dust, several Zox came, all pointing their guns at the emperor. There were five guards left who were not affected by the bomb, but the invading Zox made quick work of them.

"Emperor Crom, your days of dictatorship comes to an end, now!" Shin shouted. Crom then stood from his throne, not afraid of the intruders.

"Pah! You think a handful of rebels is going to overthrow the Empire?"

"No, not just a handful. There are more of us than you know, many others who feel the same as we do. The Empire has been crumbling ever since Karlnak was defeated in battle, and as soon as all of Compet knows that the P2 has fallen as well, there will be very few people left who will remain loyal to the Empire. The Empire has been deceiving us for generations, conquering thousands of worlds and enslaving countless of innocents! This ends now!"

"I'll never surrender the Empire! Even if I die, you'll still accomplish nothing!" Crom shouted, still determined. Shin then spoke in a low voice, keeping his gun pointed at him.

"Oh, but I beg to differ. Like a friend once told me, those who deal wickedly will one day receive their punishment, and your time has come."

"I think not!" Crom shouted. He quickly sat down and pressed a button under his arm rest. Four rods then shot out from around his seat, and activated a square energy barrier around him. "You'll never penetrate this, and soon, my guards will come and take care of you!" Crom smiled, seeing himself invincible. Shin then took out his radio, and brought it to his mouth.

"John, cut the power to the barrier." As he said that, the rods lost their power, and the blue energy barrier disappeared.

"What? But you could only cut the power if…." Crom then gasped wide in fear.

"Like I said, there are more of us than you think, even people who serve you." Shin then turned to two of the Zox with him. "Take this monster away, and throw him in the prison."

"But sir, not everyone in the prison follows us."

"Don't worry, they will once I give a little speech." Shin said, a peaceful smile over his face. The two Zox grabbed the Emperor and began marching down the pathway. Crom was utterly shocked, and became more scarred the further he was taken from his throne.

"But, no! No, this can't be! The Empire is the most powerful force ever! It can't end like this! No! No!" His cries echoed down the hall, and disappeared as he was carried further away. Shin then put the radio to his mouth again.

"Mission accomplished."

"You have everything under control down there?" Mario asked from the other line.

"Don't worry about us. I'll make sure that my people never bother you again. All Zox living on planets that are inhabited by another race of intelligent beings will be ordered to leave immediately."

"Good luck Shin, and thank you."

"No, thank you."

Back in outer space, the Nintendo 64 came out of stealth mode, and opened a portal to return to Dimension N. There was nothing left to fear from the Zox.


	23. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

/songs/Disposer-TheEndOfLoneliness(SecretofMana).mp3

"You ready?" Mario asked. He looked at Link and Ash from what he could see, the Nintendo 64 being in the way of Zero. They stood on the field at Peach's Castle, and four of the heroes stood at the corners of the giant ship, each holding a controller. With the others affirming that they were ready, they raised the controllers towards 64, and pressed the button at the bottom of them. The four keys sent a beam that met above the 64 at the middle, and the 64 began to phase out of reality. The ship slowly became more and more transparent, until it finally disappeared, returning to the place that it had slept for thousands of years before they unlocked it.

With the Nintendo 64 now gone, the heroes walked towards the middle of the field, to say their final good-byes.

"So, since we've basically ruined the original places that the keys were held, you guys will be hanging on to them, right?" Krystal asked. Mario nodded.

"Yes, I'll be keeping one deep within a secret chamber inside the castle."

"And I'll take one to the castle of Hyrule, keeping it locked away with a magic seal."

"And Professor Oak is having a high-security safe being built, with five feet of reinforced titanium constructed in the quiet area of Pallet Town."

"And I'll take one back to the Resistance base." Zero said. "We're having a similar safe constructed."

"So that the only way the Nintendo 64 can be used is if you four give approval." Samus reasoned.

"Yes; it's too powerful to fall into the wrong hands. The people who built it knew what they were doing when they made the keys." Sonic mentioned. Ash looked blankly at the ground, thinking of all the things they had gone through.

"Man, we've certainly been through a lot, and though it's been hard, I kind of enjoyed it. Certainly bigger than training to be a Pokemon Master! I hope we can all meet up again some time!"

"No, I hope we _don't_ meet again." Zero said. They looked to him, surprised by his seemingly rude remark. "The only reason we've all joined together is because the entire planet, even entire Dimensions, were in danger." Zero then closed his eyes, and chuckled. 

"But I know what you meant." Just then, Zero heard a beeping.

"Zero, are you there? Come in!"

"I'm here, Ciel. What is it?"

"Ah, Zero! It's nice to hear your voice again!"

"Yes, it's been a while. So what's the problem?"

"Neo Arcadia is launching an attack on our base, and we could really use your help!"

"Sure thing."

"All right, we'll trans you here." Zero then turned to Marina. He gave a grin, and waved goodbye.

"See you around, space girl." Marina painfully smiled, not wanting to see him go, but a second later, he vanished in a beam of light. Marina then sighed and looked at the ground. As much as she'd like to be with him, he was needed elsewhere.

"So, you guys heading out too?" Mario asked.

"Not yet, actually." Theo said. "I want to get a dimensional drive installed on our home. Those slip portals will make space travel a breeze!"

"Heh, it's still hard to imagine that I'm going to be helping people with dimensional drives now." Tails said. "We came here to hide from the Zox, and I didn't tell anyone how to travel to other dimensions because I feared people encountering the Zox, but with that threat gone, there's no reason not to share the technology with others."

"Speaking of which, I should be heading back to Diamondous. Eva is probably worried sick about me by now."

"And it's about time I took a well deserved rest! I'm gonna get back to my island and have a nice, cold banana shake!"

"A break sounds good, too." Samus said. "I have to say though, I think I'll have trouble getting used to my ship after traveling in the 64."

"Well then, I hope we all meet each other again, and not under dangerous circumstances." Mario said, tipping his hat.

"Yes. Though we had some good times, I hope that the Nintendo 64 will never be needed again."

"Hey, and I hope you guys plan on entering the next Super Smash Bros. Tournament! It would be great to see how much we've improved from this whole war!" Fox said.

"Heh, I'll see you there then."

--

In a bright, white expanse known as Dimension X, several beings were gathered together, happy to see that their mission had succeeded.

"It is done; the cycle of death and despair has ended."

"Yes, and the Heroes have fulfilled their greatest accomplishment. The Zox came as we foresaw, and the Nintendo 64 that we left behind was used by the Heroes as planned, and they succeeded."

"The Zox had many ties to other dimensions, and now that the threat is gone, it will spread to others. Nintendo's continual existence has been made sure."

--

The light footsteps of Princess Peach could be heard walking up the stairs of the lobby in her castle. The pink princess approached the top, but stopped to look around her. A concerned expression was on her face as she appeared to be looking for someone.

"Hello? Toad? Toadsworth?" Her voice was soft, but worried. "Mario? Anyone?" The princess was then startled as she heard a voice from behind her.

"The mighty have fallen, the eager awake. We are coming, and power will shake." The eerie voice spoke. As Peach looked behind her, she saw one of her Toadstool servants, but the sight of him did not bring her comfort. The small, mushroom-head servant was emotionless, and his eyes completely white. The same voice was then heard from behind her.

"The mighty have fallen, the eager awake. We are coming, and power will shake." Another of her servants, in the same state, was slowly walking towards her. Frightened, she headed towards the upper door and headed for the stairs.

Princess Peach breathed heavily as she raced up the stairs, hearing the eerie sentence repeated by several zombie-like Toads. Once she reached the door she shoved it open and stepped into the room, her shoes resounding lonely in the large castle.

"The mighty have fallen, the eager awake. We are coming, to take our rightful place." The voice was different this time, as it was the voice of Mario. Peach turned around to see Mario behind her, but he too was zombie-like. Frustrated, she grabbed Mario's shoulders and shook him.

"I don't understand! What is it that you want from me!" The Princess said, her voice now raised. Mario's countenance then changed suddenly, to that of evil, red eyes, and a wide, pointed-tooth grin.

"To die!" The evil Mario shouted, his voice resembling the zombie-Toads. Peach jumped back and screeched in freight, and woke up screaming. Peach stopped screaming, her heart beginning to slow down as she came to realize it was a dream. She looked around her, and saw that she was in bed within the safety of her bedroom.

As Princess Peach regained her composure, the doors flew open, and greatly concerned, and rather old Toad came rushing in.

"Princess, Princess! Are you okay? I could hear you shouting from down the hall!"

"It's okay Toadsworth, it was just a bad dream." She looked out the window, the sun now rising and casting its beans into her room. It was a beautiful, peaceful scene, but there was something nagging at her heart that she couldn't let go. Toadsworth could recognize this, and tried to help her.

"Princess, what is the matter?" Peach did respond to this immediately, but continuing to look out at her kingdom, with sadness in her voice, said,

"I fear that Nintendo's peace will not last much longer."

/songs/MorrowindFearNotOCReMix.mp3

All characters, scenes, and music belong to their respective owners.

Author

Black Phantom

Writer

Black Phantom

Producer

Black Phantom

Special Thanks

Nintendo

Sega

Sony

Nsider

Overclocked Remix

VGmix

And most of all…

YOU!

THANKS FOR READING!

**THE END**


End file.
